Kayode Williams, a bishop and director-general of the Prison Rehabilitation Mission, has stated that certain inmates in prisons are placed in protective custody to ensure their safety.
Gatekeepers News reports that Williams made these comments during an interview with Arise TV while discussing the allegations against Bobrisky, a popular crossdresser.
Bobrisky was accused of bribing EFCC officials with N15 million to have a money laundering charge against him dropped. Bobrisky denied these allegations, but the federal government suspended some officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) in connection with the controversy.
Williams explained that due to Bobrisky’s gender identity, he was placed in protective custody during his six-month jail sentence.
Bobrisky, who was born male, has publicly expressed his gender complexities and has claimed to be Nigeria’s first transgender individual. During his trial, Bobrisky made contradictory statements about his gender identity, adding to the complexity of the case.
“Let me explain the categorisation of the prison setup. The prison now called the correctional service has buildings that accommodate convicted criminals, awaiting trials, including condemned criminals,” William said.
“When they enter the prison for the first time, they have to put them on proper recording, who is this inmate? where is he to be kept?
“This man we are discussing today, he is neither here nor there, as a man or a woman, to be recognised.”
The bishop said the confusion about classifying Bobrisky’s gender necessitated the need to have him kept safe in a “special place”.
“The first thing the (prison) record will do is to say ‘how do we treat this type of human that is neither woman nor a man?” the director general of Prison Rehabilitation Mission said.
“Are we going to say he’s a man or a woman? The accommodation that is provided for all males, are they going to bring Idris with her transgender body look to go and sleep in the general cell with general prisoners?
“He is transgender, so they looked for a way not to disturb them because she can cause a heavy riot with it
“In prison they call it protective custody because they will tear him to pieces because of his body look.
“He looks like a woman, he moves like a woman so for her to go to any cell there are chronic homosexual inmates that are very hungry to go to any length to tear anybody, even the ones that are not transgender they try to rape them.”
