The Nigeria Police Force has said it cannot arrest crossdressers, including Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, popularly known as Bobrisky.
There have been calls for Bobrisky’s arrest, especially after he was controversially awarded Best Dressed Female at a Nollywood event.
Socialites such as Portable and VeryDarkMan had called on the police to pick him up because of his moral stance which is at variance with the Constitution.
Speaking with Channels TV on Tuesday, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, said crossdressers cannot be arrested because it is dicey situation.
He said cross-dressing is not yet a punishable offence in Nigeria.
He also stated that even if there might be allegations of people who cross-dress also being a part of the LGBTQ community, there is no specific evidence to back that up, hence they cannot take them to court.
“There are some cases that are always very difficult to prove. I’m not ruling out that we have many of them. Let us be reasonable, you can’t have someone you want to prosecute without having credible evidences against them. I have not read anywhere where crossdressing is an offence in Nigeria.
“Some of them that are into crossdressing, the allegation is that they are into something else. That’s where the problem lies. We need to have enough proof, credible evidence to prove that they are actually into that. All those offences are natural offences in Nigeria and they are punishable under our laws.”
