By Abiola Olawale
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos state has convicted embattled crossdresser Idris Okuneye popularly known as Bobrisky of abusing the Naira, Nigeria’s national currency.
The presiding judge, Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday convicted Bobrisky after conducting a review of the facts of the case.
The court has scheduled April 9 as the date for delivering judgment in the case involving Bobrisky.
The New Diplomat reports that during court proceedings on Friday Bobrisky pleaded guilty to a four-count charge of tampering with N490,000 by spraying brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Earlier, the EFCC, through its counsel, Suleiman Suleiman, had withdrawn the two-count of laundering N180.7 million through his company, Bob Express.
The EFCC’s Counsel however did not give any reason for the decision.
Following the plea of the convict, Justice Awogboro convicted him and then ordered the anti-graft agency to review the facts of the case.
While reviewing the facts of the case, Sulaiman called an investigating officer with the Commission, Bolaji Temitope, who told the judge that the EFCC received intelligence of individuals who have the habit of mutilating and spraying Naira during parties in Lagos.
Temitope also told the court that based on intelligence, the Commission sent out an operation team to monitor and observe the activities of suspects.
He said: “We usually visit event centers and monitor social media pages where Naira is abused.
“During the exercise, we came across a video on social media where the convict was seen abusing the Naira.
“Our team then proceeded to view the video and burnt the same on CD. Consequently, the invitation letter was forwarded to the defendant.
“When he honored the invitation, the defendant was shown a video where he was spraying money on Segun Johnson. He confirmed that he was the one in the video”.
The prosecution then tendered the video, and the court admitted it without objection from the defense lawyer, Ayo Olumofin.
In his allocution, the convict pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy because he was unaware of the law that criminalized abuse of the Naira.
The convict also claimed he is a social media influencer with over five million followers.
