Okoya Boys, Naira Abuse and the Law

By James Uzor

Again, the contentious issue of naira abuse and what constitutes such abuse has reared its head again as the social media (and conventional ones) feast on the subject following a trending video of Wahab and Raheem Okoya recorded in the closet of their home.

Immediately the video went viral, bloggers and commenters had drawn inferences between what was seen on the clip and that of the controversial cross dresser, Idris Okunneye, a.k.a Bobrisky over which the later was arrested, tried and jailed.

But perspective observers and analysts have expressed reservations over such comparism and the danger of lumping all such incidents together under the one umbrella of breaching the law.

“We should stop being ridiculous and face the real issues confronting us in this country. Some young lads in their room are doing a musical rehearsal, away from public eyes, and someone recorded it and released it in the social media, and you say that constitutes a crime? We should stop making ourselves the laughing stock of the international community. This is a huge distraction. We don’t need this now,” said a lawyer and retired banker who wishes to be anonymous.

He went further: “Those who are abusing the naira are those who go to the public space parties, social functions, etc, spraying naira, stepping on it and generally messing it up without a care in the world. How many of such real culprits have been brought to book?”

The contention here is that while the Bobrisky case being cited is a real case situation of a party scene where the actual abuse of naira unfolded before the public glare without restraint, the case here is the equivalent of eavesdropping on a discussion and attempting to use it to implicate the conversationalists.

It was also argued further that contrary to the impression being created in the social media that the boys are being preferentially treated because of their privileged background, the reality is that this is a weak or no case and investigators must have known that not much could be achieved by pushing this to the limits.

Said Fola Atolagbe, a public analyst, “this has absolutely nothing to do with these boys’ privileged background. This case is weak. It can only generate social media excitement. It can not go far. There are so many serious cases that the investigators need to devote their lean resources to than this social media distraction issue. Let’s get serious.”