All suggestions to womanhood, including asking that he be addressed as Mummy of Lagos, winning the best-dressed female at movie premier in Lagos a fortnight ago and even going to the extent of claiming to having menstrual cramps, came crashing on Friday, as Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky, finally confirmed that he is actually a man.
The popular cross-dresser, who recently fell on the wrong side of the law, a development that would see him spending the next six months in prison, after he was arrested and slammed with criminal charges on April 4, for abusing the Naira, caved in to admitting his true gender on Friday before his sentencing by the Federal High Court in Lagos State.
Idris, who was initially charged on six-counts of abuse of the Naira and money laundering, had escaped a bigger punishment for the latter offence, but was lucky that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which is behind his present ordeal, eventually withdrew it and concentrated on the four-counts of abuse of the Naira.
The PUNCH, quoted him as telling Justice Abimbola Awogboro, presiding in the matter that “I’m a man,” before the six-month sentence without option of fine was handed down to him by the judge, which had initially deferred the ruling to April 9, after the crossdresser pleaded guilty and was subsequently convicted last Friday.
Before Awogboro, pronounced the sentence, which he said would commence the day of his arrest, he had asked: “Are you a man or a woman?” Bobrisky responded, “I am a man,” a clarification the judge must have further relied on in passing the judgement, which he said would serve as a deterrent to others fund of abusing and mutilating the naira.
Before his conviction on April 5, the crossdresser had pleaded with the court for mercy, on the ground that he was not aware that spraying money was an offence, adding that as a social media influencer with over five million followers, he would use his platform to spread the message about the implication of the act so that Nigerians would be well-informed.
He said: “I know, My Lord. My Lord, I wish that you could give me a second chance to use my platform to inform and educate my followers about spraying money. I would do a video on my page, and I would educate people about spraying money. I will not repeat it, My Lord. I regret my actions, My Lord.”
But Awogboro, who had promptly reminded him that ignorance of the law was no excuse to an offence, went ahead to find him guilty, but deferred the sentencing to Tuesday, April 9, which incidentally was declared a public holiday, alongside Wednesday and Thursday by the Federal Government for the Eid-el-Fitr celebration.