‘Guarded Like a President’ – Fresh Details Emerge of the Privileges Bobrisky Received While in Prison

Fresh Details into the controversy surrounding Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, the Nigerian transgender woman better known as Bobrisky has revealed the lavish treatment he received during his brief stint in prison.

Despite being sentenced to six months for naira abuse in April, Bobrisky spent only three weeks behind bars, a report by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), revealed.

On Tuesday, Martins Vincent Otse, a social media user known as VeryDarkMan, released a phone conversation during which Bobrisky confessed to paying N15 million to have the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) remove ‘money laundering’ from the charges against her.

In the conversation, she confessed to serving her term outside the prison.

A prison official, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed to FIJ that Bobrisky was “guarded like a president” and enjoyed VIP treatment during her brief stay at Kirikiri prison.

“Bob spent only three weeks here with us in Kirikiri before she was taken out to another place we don’t know,” the prison official said.

“That was where she spent her time; it was an ‘arrangee thing’. And money was involved.”

The source also revealed how Bobrisky was “guarded like a president” until she was “secretly taken away after three weeks”.

“She received VIP treatment all through,” said the source. “She lived in a special cell. The money she said she paid is actually true; no lies. Yes, she paid the money.”

The FIJ report also uncovered an incident where a prisoner was locked up for nearly two months for inadvertently capturing Bobrisky on camera during a video call.

“There was this day one guy was on a video call with his girlfriend, and he suddenly turned the camera on Bobrisky,” the prison official recounted. “It was deemed an invasion of Bobrisky’s privacy, so, as punishment, he was locked up in his cell for nearly two months.”

Furthermore, James Brown, another crossdresser, claimed to have visited Bobrisky in prison on June 8. However, sources close to James revealed that Bobrisky was no longer in prison at the time of the visit. Instead, James had visited a different inmate, Vindicate, to record a song from prison.

It should be noted that due to the latest controversy, Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has ordered an unconditional investigation into the allegations of bribery and corruption within the Nigerian Correctional Service.

The Nigerian Correctional Service has neither denied nor confirmed claims that Bobrisky did not serve her jail term in Kirikiri. However, two deputy controllers of corrections, Michael Anugwa and Sikiru Adekunle, have been suspended over their handling of Bobrisky’s case.