Mansur Oladunjoye, Lagos
A 24-year-old photojournalist, with Talk Village International, Yinka Badmus, is currently languishing at Ikoyi maximum Prisons, Lagos over choice of hairstyle.
Our reporter learnt from family source that Yinka was arrested by policemen attached to the Lagos State Anti-Cultism unit.
According to our source, Yinka was wearing dreadlocks and was allegedly mistaken for a cultist.
He was arrested on New Year eve, while eating noodles, at Pedro, Gbagada and was allegedly refused to contact with his relatives or friends while in detention.
However, luck smiled on Badmus on January 3, when he was able to send message home through a freed detainee.
The source explained that the lucky detainee visited and told them that their kinsman had already spent three days in detention.
Consequently, Badmus’ relatives contacted his boss, Stephen Oguntoyibo, Chief Executive Officer of Talk Village International, to help secure his bail.
It was gathered that when Stephen Oguntoyibo went to bail Badmus at the station, he was shocked to see the Police conveying him and other young men in a Black Maria to Ogudu Magistrate’s Court, where he was eventually arraigned and remanded.
Oguntoyibo said he had been inundated with phone calls from prison, alerting him of Badmus’ deteriorating health.
Meanwhile, National Coordinator of Network for Police Reforms in Nigeria, Okechukwu Nwanguma, furious over the journalist’s continued incarceration, said: “The Police officer was quoted as saying the guy was arrested because of his hairstyle.
“Where in the law is a hairstyle a crime? And why did the Police officer go ahead to charge him?“ he queried.
