Kafayat Adeleke, mother of Sultan Adeleke, a street hawker facing challenges due to a deformity since birth, shared the reasons her child embraced a life as a lady.
Eniola, also known as Sultan, caught the attention of skit maker and comedian Chukwuebuka Emmanuel, aka Brain Jotter, in Lagos.
Despite his physical challenges, Eniola identified as a makeup artist while selling water on Lagos highways.
Impressed by her determination, Brain Jotter gifted her N400,000 and urged Nigerians to support her makeup business.
The video gained traction on Tuesday, catching the attention of singer David Adeleke, known as Davido, who tagged the handle of Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, urging assistance for the person in the video.
This sparked debates, with some asserting that the self-proclaimed ‘female hawker’ is actually a boy disguising for public sympathy.
In an interview with social media enthusiast Mr LilGaga on Thursday, Adeleke asserted that her son had been adopting this disguise in Osogbo since 2018.
Despite being confronted multiple times, he continued with the act and eventually ran away from home.
She said, “Sultan was never born a female; he was born with a deformity, and this was one of the reasons why I even like him.
“He always stopped me from calling him Sultan, but Eniola except that he would desist from taking my calls.
“It was 2020 when he went to Lagos to start asking for help from people while acting as a girl to appeal to the general public to help him.”
Fielding questions on the claim that his son ran away from Osogbo because she wanted to use him for ritual purposes, Adeleke said, “You can come to Osogbo to confirm; he’s the favourite among my children. I love him because it was because of him that people love me while sympathising with his physical condition. That claim is something that makes me sober when I am asked or told.”
She added that the boy had always been going around for the make-up businesses that he learnt in Osogbo and that many times, she went with him to ensure that he returned home since he was always absconding, adding, “There was a day he got angry that I should stop coming with him and that he was no longer interested in staying with me again and that was how he ran to Lagos.”
She clarified that she had never sought financial assistance from him, except in recent times when his story gained attention, resulting in monetary support and other gifts. The mother also provided images illustrating Eniola’s deformity since birth and shared his birth certificate, indicating his birthdate as September 23, 2005.
Meanwhile, Eniola disclosed on Instagram Live that he is a boy. He explained that he adopted a feminine appearance to elicit public support, as he felt no one was willing to assist him otherwise.
