The spokesperson of Lagos state police command, Bala Elkana, is still coming under fire over his recent comment that Nigerians who rock tattoos and dreadlocks are being harassed by law enforcement agents because the fashion style is strange to our culture.

WuzupNaija reports that Elkana made the claim in an interview with BBC pidgin, while condemning the recent killing of a football fan, Kolade Johnson in the state.

The police spokesperson was quoted to have said,

“tattoo and dreadlocks are strange to our culture especially for Nigeria. Most times when you arrest cultists, many of them have signs on them.”

His comment has evoked a lot of criticisms from Nigerians who believe he is not in touch with reality.

In a recent interview by Punch, some of the interviewees opined that the spokesperson needs to be educated on Nigerian culture because tattoos and dreadlocks have been part of the nation.

Some also alleged that the Public Relations Officer of the Police, Zone 2 Command, CSP Dolapo Badmos also have a tattoo.

One of the respondents said,

“With all due respect to the spokesperson, he had no education about African culture

“There is something we call ‘dada’ here in Nigeria which is basically naturally dreadlocks, we also have tattoos which is our tribal marks and body arts. My mom has about two or three tribal marks which is also a tattoo and also body arts.

“For him to come out and say they are not part of our culture it shows he has no education about the issue and shouldn’t have said anything about it.

“There is also a female police PRO (Dolapo Badmus) who has a tattoo in her cleavage area. The officers who kidnapped me at barracks bust stop have tattoos on their body, why are they there if they are not part of our culture.

“I believe the man needs to be educated and re-orientated, we are tired of police killing us for nothing sake.”

Another respondent also said the claims by Elkana

“All those things he is saying are just excuses for the unwarranted arrest and brutality of innocent citizens.

“Tattoo is not a crime it is just a fashion, even in the olden days, people have tattoos.”

 

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