A public interest and human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has revealed the challenging situation cross-dresser Idris Okuneye aka Bobrisky, may face while serving his time at Ikoyi Prison.
Bobrisky was sentenced to six months in prison without an option of fine over naira abuse charges on Friday.
Reacting to the judgement in a tweet on Friday, the lawyer said: “Bobrisky will have a difficulty experience in the Custodial Centre (prison) because he is not a freedom fighter and does not seem to me like someone that can stay in a restricted environment under harsh and excruciating conditions.”
He continued: “The main key to surviving imprisonment is mental strength and courage. The prison wall only breaks those who are not driven by strong convictions.
“For a freedom fighter, it is a training ground. No true activist goes to prison and comes out weaker. They always come out stronger and bolder. History shows this clearly. Any activist that is broken by imprisonment is a pretender.
“If you are all about the ‘soft life’, and you are the fragile type and incapable of enduring physical discomfiture, you should avoid imprisonment.
“Some of us came out stronger after our imprisonment because we have always been mentally prepared for it and due to our strong ideological disposition.
“Bobrisky will be confronted by a culture shock when he enters Ikoyi Prison and realizes that it is a different world from what he knows. After a few days, he will begin to adjust to his new world.
“Money can only ameliorate the hardship there, but it will not shield him from the daily problems and inconveniences of the prison environment.
“This is when he will know who his true friends are. When I was jailed for one month, reality dawn on me that some people who I thought were sympathetic to my cause, actually celebrated my detention. How my enemies felt about it was irrelevant.
“Unluckily for my unfriendly friends and foes, my spirit was free and liberated. My physical restriction didn’t break me at all. I actually added weight in prison and enjoyed long hours of sleep which I never had before and after my one month imprisonment.
“Most Nigerians have a wrong perception of the prison system. The idea that the prison is where only criminals are kept is baseless. If I didn’t experience it, I would not have known how deeply flawed and broken our criminal justice system is.
“Many people in prison are innocent or just victims of circumstances. But there are also hardened criminals there. Sadly, the current system does little or nothing to reform inmates,” he added.
