Fisayo Soyombo, the Nigerian investigative journalist, has narrated how Nigerian prison officials told him that if he has money, he will not need to suffer in prison.
He said this while speaking with Arise TV News in the wake of the scandal involving cross-dresser Idris Okuneye Olanrewaju, popularly known as Bobrisky.
The investigation stems from an allegation that Bobrisky served part of his six-month prison sentence in a private apartment instead of a correctional facility, allegedly involving a bribe. Bobrisky was sentenced to prison for abusing the naira.
According to Fisayo, for the investigation report that landed him in prison, he had arranged with someone to claim that he bought a car worth N2.8 million but only paid N500,000 and refused to pay the balance.
“I arranged with someone who said I bought a car which is N2.8 million and only paid N500,000 but did not want to pay the rest.” he stated
Narrating his experience, Soyombo said, “That was the charge but they changed it to hijacking of SUV. The person said I did not pay and I did not want to. Each day, they were asking me to come and settle, they wanted bribes but I wanted to go to prison because police were not the target.
“On Monday, they arraigned me in court. One thing to note is that immediately the magistrate said ‘sentenced to prison custody,’ they took me to the holding cell and told my ‘sister’, is this where you want your brother to stay? Give us money and your brother will stay in our office. There was a negotiation and we settled for N5,000. The prison warden approached me, I didn’t approach them.
According to him, prison officials have different categories of cells for rent to inmates that go or as high as N1 million.
“They came and said, in prison, if you have money, you will never suffer. You serve in prison either with your money or with your body. I can tell you Bobrisky did not sleep in the cell. He spent three weeks and they moved him out. There is no single Nigerian who has money who will complete their term in prison except they want to. He told me that if I have money, I will get a decent place in prison. They told me that when Fayose was in Ikoyi prison, did I think he stayed in the general prison?
“Everything is on tape, tell the Nigerian prisons service officials to produce it.
“Even in court, somebody approached me that if I paid N200,000, I would sleep in my house even if I am pronounced to be in prison. The only reason it did not work out is because I wanted to go to prison.
“Do you think if Bobrisky spent one night in prison, he will come out and speak to anyone. That first night, you keep asking yourself ‘who sent me,’ because you sleep all night like sardines; you cannot turn. It is punishment, it is everything you can think of and the thing is once you have money, you bypass all this.”
“I will never refer to them as Nigerian correctional service, what are they correcting,”
he quipped.
He said he was told that he would “get a decent place to stay in prison for N50,000, for N100,000, for N150,000. He even said N1 million, this was in 2019”.
Mr Vincent Otse, social media influencer also known as VeryDarkMan had published an audio recording which captured Bobrisky allegedly saying that he spent his jail term in a private apartment.
The audio also captured Bobrisky allegedly saying that he paid N15 million to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission officials to drop charges of money laundering against him.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government, on Monday, September 30, inaugurated an independent investigative panel to probe allegations of corruption and gross violations of standard operating procedures within the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who inaugurated the committee said the panel must also look at the recent allegations that some correctional service personnel had provided alternative accommodation for Bobrisky.
