Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court in Lagos, on Friday, convicted a controversial Nigerian cross dresser, Idris Okuneye, popularly known as “Bobrisky”, following his involvement in Naira abuse.
But his conviction was sequel to his “guilty pleas” to currency abuse charge preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The anti-graft agency had charged Bobrisky with six- count charge of Naira abuse and money laundering.
But the agency dropped the money laundering charge as Bobrisky pleaded guilty to currency abuse charge in count counts one to four.
Justice Awogboro consequently convicted Bobrisky, following his guilty plea but reserved his sentence till Tuesday, April 9, 2024.
The judge further ordered that Bobrisky should be remanded in the EFCC custody till the next adjourned date.
When the matter came up on Friday, the prosecuting EFCC lawyer, Mr Suleiman Suleiman, informed the court that following a discussion, Bobrisky had agreed to plead guilty to the charge.
Suleiman consequently applied for counts five and six to be struck out, leaving counts one to four.
Justice Awogboro thereafter struck out counts five and six.
When the remaining four-count charge was read to Bobrisky, he pleaded guilty to same.
Following his guilty pleas, the EFCC lawyer called on the investigating police officer to give a brief review of the case as its prosecution witness.
The witness, Mr Bolaji Temitope, an assistant superintendent of the EFCC, said that during investigation, the team came about a video where Bobrisky was seen mutilating the Naira notes.
He added that the videos were downloaded and copied on a Compact Disc (CD) while a letter of invitation was sent to the cross dresser.
According to him, Bobrisky honoured the invitation and when he arrived the at EFCC office, he was cautioned while he volunteered a statement.
The witness told the court that Bobrisky was then shown a video where he was spraying money on an artiste called Segun Johnson. adding that Bobrisky confessed and admitted that he was the person in the video.
Temitope also said that Bobrisky was also shown a video of him at Circle Mall Lekki, where he sprayed a total sum of N400,000 at a movie premier, adding that Bobrisky again admitted same.
The witness further told the court that Bobrisky was also shown two videos of him spraying money at Ajah and Ikorodu junction in Lagos while he still admitted same.
At this point, the prosecuting EFCC lawyer showed the witness the CD containing the videos as well as statement of the Bobrisky and certificate of identification.
The witness confirmed the items to the court, while there was no objection from the lawyer to Bobrisky, Ayo Olumofin.
The court consequently, admitted the items and marked them as exhibit A, B1 and B2.
The prosecuting lawyer then urged the court to convict Bobrisky as charged based on the case as presented by the EFCC.
The court consequently found Bobrisky guilty of the offence as charged and convicted him accordingly.
But during his allocutus (plea for leniency), Bobrisky told the court that he is a social media influencer with five million followers.
He then said, “In all honesty, I was not aware of the law; My Lord, I wish I can be given a second chance to use my platform to educate my followers about spraying the naira.
“I will do a video on my page and educate those who do not know like myself, about spraying of the Naira; I regret my action.”
On his part, lawyer to Bobrisky begged for a non custodial sentence for his client.
The court then rose briefly after the allocutus by Olumofin.
When the court resumed after the short break, Justice Awogboro, reserved his judgement until April 9, and ordered that Bobrisky should be remanded in the EFCC custody pending judgement.
Bobrisky, was arrested on Thursday by the anti-graft agency in connection with the offence.
In the charge sheet before the court, Bobrisky was said to have committed the offence on March 24, at Circle Mall, Jakande in the Lekki area of Lagos.
The agency also said that he tampered with the cumulative sum of N400,000 while dancing during a social event, by spraying same.
He was further accused of spraying various tranches of money between 2022 and 2023 such as N20,000 and N50,000 at various events.
In the struck out counts, the EFCC had said that Bobrisky, trading under the name and style of BobExpress between Sept. 1, 2021 and April 4, also failed to submit to the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering , a declaration of the activities of his company.
According to the EFCC, within the said period, the sum of N128 million was paid into the company’s account.
The anti-grant agency also said that within same period, Bobrisky failed to submit a declaration to the unit, of his company, where the sum of N53 million was paid.
According to the EFCC, the offence is contrary to the provisions of sections 21(1) Central Bank Act 2007, and 19 Money Laundering Act 2022.
