The Lagos State Government made a move on Thursday that initially came across as the lawful thing to do. The state’s Police Command ordered the arrest of the now popular Pretty Mike who goes about town with two masked ladies on a dog lead. Now, the state’s Police Commissioner has gone ahead to announce that the case will be treated as a criminal investigation.

Owner of Club Uno, Pretty Mike made news headlines over the weekend when he stepped out to a wedding with the ladies, who seemed pretty content in their collars and chains, one of them even decked an umbrella. For most Nigerians, it was demeaning, intolerable and abusive. It was a violation of human rights and more importantly, the rights of women.

The viral photo was widely condemned and we were starting to move on from the matter as a large number of critics placed the responsibility to work out the girls’ freedom from this dishonourable lifestyle, in their own hands. But the Lagos state government stepped in by arresting Mike and having him write an undertaking in which he promised to “stop the degrading act and issue an apology to the public on all his social media platforms”.

Although the state government dressed the arrest up like a lawful attempt to ensure a sane community where the rights of citizens are protected, it has no convincing justification (beside the one below) for arresting Pretty Mike in this circumstance, for the one reason being, he has committed no criminal offence.

If this is anything to go by, then the accused man has not insulted or offended any person(s) as the people at the events he attended with his girls seemed to about their business without minding the queerness that was going on around them.

The police claims they got wind of the case just like we all did, via social media. No one made a formal complaint against Pretty Mike’s actions, there’s hardly any civil organisation breathing fire over the matter so the police now gives us the impression that we as Nigerians are now being policed through our social media pages, an infringement on individual privacy.

The actions of the Nigerian police on this Pretty Mike are badly thought-out and an utter waste of time mainly because the police has made no move to at least rescue the ladies, who are consenting adults by the way, from the leash of Mike. If the police claims this is a case of domestic violence, then it should have impulsively raided Pretty Mike’s apartment to see if he has more women in chains and cages.

We can’t deny that we have a working government in Lagos state but this singular action reeks of propaganda and it is in itself, distasteful and even dangerous. It’s not in the government’s place to wade into issues like this there are still thousands of rapists, paedophiles, kidnappers and human traffickers prowling the streets of Lagos and running unfortunately profitable business off social media. These are the areas the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni is expected to be sniffing through but not among three adults who are clearly fetishists and stupid enough to take their private roleplay to public places.

If the state police insists that it is taking action against indecency and immorality, then Pretty Mike should not be the only culprit here, the girls need to take a few lessons too. But making this a criminal investigation? No, the police is overreaching and if Pretty Mike were smart, he’d be calling his lawyers now too.

Tolu

Your pop culture/entertainment go-to. Music head. Wallflower. I do not like to write. On a mission to decipher covfefe.