Right on the heels of Falz‘ new hit-track: ‘This is Nigeria’ , it seems as though the Nigerian police force were on a mission to prove some of the issues highlighted as everything wrong with the country.
A popular Lagos-based hair stylist, Idowu Oluwatosin Olakunle, was locked up for roughly 8 hours on allegations that he looked too slim and gay as he boarded a bus heading to a client’s home in Ogudu, Lagos.
A video he posted on Instagram on 29th May showed a panoramic view from the inside of the jail cell he was licked up in. He gave the following account of his experience:
So this morning by 9am, I was on my way to style someone at Ogudu, I entered a public transport and was stopped by a guy at Ojota who asked me to introduced myself I asked why he said his police, they asked for my ID card I showed them, then he said I looked like a girl in my ID and that was how they started yelling and calling me names, then they took me and put me in their bus, took me all the way from Ojota to IWAYA POLICE POST then I asked what my offence was, they said I look like GAY, INDECENT ACT and I’m too SLIM that I’m a witch and I’m looking derain in nature . I was locked up from 9am – 4pm before they release me I was told to pay a sum of 5,000 naira. Please since when did been slim become an offence in LAGOS. I was unjustly maltreated today by the POLICE and I demand justice. 😡 😡
He also managed to get a photo of the arresting officer responsible for putting him behind bars.
I have several questions. Perhaps, the beginning preamble would be to ask what our priorities as a country are or if we have any at all? Perhaps if our country weren’t burdened with more pressing issues such as the declining state of our economy, a corruptible government, drug abuse and so on… arresting someone on the basis of their appearance wouldn’t seem so bothersome but in light of everything we have going on, this is so ridiculous! And to think he got arrested on Democracy Day? What an irony.
