Controversial trans woman, Idris Okuneye popularly known as Bobrisky has filed an appeal against his sentence of six months maximum sentence given to him by a federal high court in Lagos, Bobrisky was charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes commission on accounts of naira abuse and currency mutilation which he pleaded guilty before Justice A.o Awogboro of the federal high court in Lagos.
On the 12 of April, the justice of the high court sentenced the socialite to a six months jail term without an option of fine, while sentencing the convict, the judge said Bobrisky’s situation should serve as deterrent to others eho are fond of abusing and mutilating the naira.
How ever on Monday 22 April, counsel for Okuneye, Barrister Bimbo Kusanu, filed a notice of appeal to the court to set aside the maximum of sentence stating that there are options to impose lesser sentence on his client recorded by the provisions of the Administration of criminal justice,Act ACJA. He said that the sentence imposed by the trial court against the appellant was punitive and contrary to the mandatory to the provisions of the ACJA. The appellant stated that the trial court did not consider the positive pleadings of the the appellant who never wasted the court’s time by pleading guilty immediately he was charged.
He stated that the trial court were not fair and had failed to exercise its discretion judiciously and judicially in sentencing Okuneye, he maintained that such an act had a miscarriage of justice against the appellant, the convict appeal clearly states that the court should set aside the six months imprisonment sentence. Bobrisky’s lawyer said that the convict the convict be granted a lesser sentence on accounts that he has no already existing criminal records therefore the appellant asked the court to replace the 6 months sentence with a fine of 50,000 naira which is to be paid by Bobrisky on each of the counts leveled against him.
The appeal reads ” The sentence of the lower court that imposed a maximum penalty of 6 months imprisonment without option of fine on the appellant who is a first time convict without previous record of criminal conviction, the learned trial judge erred in law and facts by the imposition of the maximum sentence of six months imprisonment terms against the appellant without option of fine contrary to the provisions of the section 416(2)d of the Administration of criminal justice Act 2015 that prescribed the mandatory guidelines on the trial court on imposition of sentencing after criminal conviction of a first time offender as the appellant.
“The trial court imposed the maximum sentence on the appellant who has no previous record of criminal conviction when there are options to impose a lesser sentence by the provision of ADCJA, the sentence imposed by the trial court against the appellant is punitive contrary to the mandatory provisions of the law on sentencing, The appellant has suffered miscarriage of justice by the maximum sentence imposed by the learned court trial, the reasons adduced by the learned court for the imposition of maximum punishment on the appellant which is essentially on what foreigners think of naira abuse is perverse and is out of tune with the reality of what the trial court should have been considered to impose maximum punishment on the appellant”
