“I asked 'why'? He said he was a police officer. He then asked me to show him my ID card. I did; he then asked why I was looking like a girl in my ID card? I explained that I have had the ID card for a while now. He then asked me to enter a bus as he claimed that I'm a gay.”
Tosin Olakunle, a makeup artist, has spoken up on how he had to bail himself out with N2,000 after he was arrested by the Police on Monday for “being too slim and having a girl’s face”.
Olakunle, who goes by the name ‘Highdtosin’ on social media, is demanding justice over his ordeal in the hands of the law enforcement officers.
Recounting the experience to Sahara reporters, he said: “I was on my way to Ogudu on Monday 28th May, 2018 to style a client. I alighted from a LAMATA bus at Ojota, but while I was walking to take the next bus, I was stopped by a guy who asked me to introduce myself to him.
“I asked 'why'? He said he was a police officer. He then asked me to show him my ID card. I did; he then asked why I was looking like a girl in my ID card? I explained that I have had the ID card for a while now. He then asked me to enter a bus as he claimed that I'm a gay.”
“I gave them my phone, my iPad to go through to see if he can find anything incriminating there. I told him that I'm a hairstylist, I don't have make up on, I don't have tattoos and piercing. But he yelled at me.”
The hairstylist said that he was taken from Ojota to Iwaya Police Station where he was detained in a cell with other guys who were arrested between 9 am and 4 pm.
When he asked about the reason for his arrest, he said the police officer told him: “You are too slim; you look like gay.”
The stylist added that while all those arrested by the police bribed their way to freedom, he could not push for his bail, as all the cash he had on him was his transport fare.
“I had to call and transfer money to someone who then came to pay N2, 000 at the station for my bail. They said I'm a witch and deranged. I kept wondering what I did to have been arrested,” he continued.
“I didn't argue with them, so that they won't hit me like they did to other people. I was locked up by 9 am and was released by 4 pm. I missed my client, ” he said.
When asked to give descriptions of the policemen who manhandled him, the hairstylist said: “They were not wearing proper uniform, but I remembered one of the guys there calling one of them Sunday.”
Efforts to get the police perspective of the incident proved futile.
SaharaReporters visited the police station at Iwaya, but the officer who handled the enquiries said she was not on duty on the day of the arrest.
When asked to check the record of detainees, the officer declined, insisting that the reporter should check back on Monday when the officers who were on duty at the time of the incident would be at the station.