Why I dressed as traditionalist to Supreme Court proceedings

A Nigerian lawyer, Malcolm Omirhobo, caused a stir on Thursday after appearing barefooted in his traditional outfit and attended proceedings at the Supreme Court, Abuja.

The lawyer gave reasons for turning up in court in the outfit during an interview with journalists.

Omirhobo also argued that he is within his rights and can’t be arrested for wearing his religious attire.

“By the Supreme Court judgement, we have been given license to dress in our religious attires. It would be a flagrant violation of my fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion for anyone to stop me,” he told journalists.

He also noted that his children will be dressing in the same manner to school, henceforth, while urging his fellow traditionalists to join the train.

He said, “… even my children will dress like this to school. I will encourage my fellow traditionalist; those who are serving Olokwu, Sango(god of thunder) and Ṣọ̀pọ̀na (god of smallpox), to dress like this because it is always good to be religious. We need to be close to the spirits.”

Speaking further, the lawyer claimed that his ‘Ifá'(divination) has warned that he will die if he wears shoes.

“You can see, I’m not wearing any shoes. Ifá has told me that if I wear shoes, I will be dead… You see this eye(pointing to a chalk-like substance used to make a circle around his right eye), I can’t see the evil spirit coming to attack me,” he added.

The lawyer would not be the first person to appear in the storage outfit in a Nigerian court.

In March 2021, a man who described himself as the spiritual advisor to the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress party, Omoyele Sowore, accompanied the politician to a Magistrates’ Court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja.

The publisher of Sahara Reporters had appeared in court his trial, along with four others, on three counts bordering on conspiracy, unlawful assembly and incitement.

See the photo below: