A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday, convicted popular Nigerian cross dresser, Idris Okuneye aka Bobrisky, for mutilation of Naira notes.<\/p>\n
The convict was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.<\/p>\n
Trial judge, Justice Abimbola Awogboro convicted the defendant following his guilty plea to the charge brought against him by the EFCC.<\/p>\n
The court reserved till April 9, to sentence the convict and ordered that he be remanded in custody of the EFCC.<\/p>\n
EFCC had on Thursday, filed a six-count charge against Bobrisky, but he was arranged Friday.<\/p>\n
According to the charge, counts one to four borders on alleged tampering with naira notes, while counts five and six borders on money laundering.<\/p>\n
When the case was called, the prosecutor,\u00a0 Mr. Suleiman\u00a0 Suleiman told the court that following a discussion, the defendant had agreed to pleaded guilty to the charge.<\/p>\n
He made an oral application for counts five and six to be struck out, leaving counts one to four.<\/p>\n
The court consequently struck out counts five and six.<\/p>\n
When the remaining counts were read to the defendant, he pleaded guilty to them.<\/p>\n
Sequel to his plea, the prosecutor called on the investigating police officer to give a brief review of the case as the prosecution witness.<\/p>\n
The witness, Mr. Bolaji Temitope of the EFCC, said that during investigation, the team came about a video where the defendant was seen mutilating the Naira notes.<\/p>\n
He said that the videos were downloaded and copied on a Compact Disc (CD) while a letter of invitation was sent to the defendant.<\/p>\n
According to him, the defendant honoured the invitation and when he arrived the EFCC office, he was cautioned and then he volunteered a statement.<\/p>\n
The witness told the court that the defendant was then shown a video where he was spraying money on an artiste called Segun Johnson, adding that the defendant\u00a0 admitted that he was the person in the video.<\/p>\n
He said that the defendant was also shown a video of him at Circle Mall Lekki, Lagos, where he sprayed the sum of N400,000 at a movie premier, and that the defendant again admitted same.<\/p>\n
He told the court that the defendant was also shown two videos of him spraying money at Ajah and Ikorodu\u00a0 junction\u00a0 in Lagos, and the defendant\u00a0 still admitted same.<\/p>\n
At this point, the prosecutor showed the witness the CD containing the videos as well as statement of the defendant and certificate of identification.<\/p>\n
The witness confirmed\u00a0 same to the court, and there was no objection from the defence.<\/p>\n
Mr Ayo Olumofin appeared for defence counsel.<\/p>\n
The court\u00a0 admitted same and marked them exhibit A, B1 and B2.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor, then urged the court to convict the defendant as charged based on the case as presented by the EFCC.<\/p>\n
The court consequently, found the defendant guilty of the offence as charged and accordingly convicted him.<\/p>\n
In his plea for mercy, the defendant told the court that he is a social media influencer with five million followers.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIn 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<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
On his part. defence counsel begged for a non custodial sentence for the defendant.<\/p>\n
The court then rose briefly after the allocutus by defence.<\/p>\n
When the court resumed, the judge reserved sentencing until April 9, and ordered that he be remanded in EFCC custody pending judgment.<\/p>\n
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday, convicted popular Nigerian cross dresser, Idris Okuneye aka Bobrisky, for mutilation of Naira notes. The convict was prosecuted by the Economic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n