SAD: Girl In Detention For Four Years Over Phone Theft

The case of Blessing Effiong, a 20-year-old inmate awaiting trial at the female section of Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos, perhaps typifies the injustice suffered by the poor in the Nigerian society.

The Akwa-Ibom indigene, who was interviewed by the Attorney-General of the state, Mr. Ade Ipaye, and representatives of the Office of the Public Defender, during a visit to the prisons to evaluate the number of awaiting trial persons there, narrated in detail how she had been incarcerated since the age of 16 because she could not afford the services of a lawyer.

She said, “In 2008, I bought a Starcomms phone for N10,000 in order to start a business centre. A few days later, a man called me and said the phone was stolen from him. I told the man I didn’t know it was stolen. We had an agreement that I should return the phone and he would refund my money.

“I gave the man my address but when he got to my place, he said the phone was stolen from him along with his laptop and some other vital documents. He accused me of being a thief, called the police and had me arrested. I was charged with robbery and have been in Kirikiri since then as my trial has yet to begin.” Click to continue reading...

Effiong said she was arrested at her guardian’s house in Ebute-Meta but was transferred to the Agboju Police Division from where she was taken to an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court.

She said although she was 16 at the time of her arrest, the Investigating Police Officer claimed she was 21 so that she would be tried as an adult.

“I told the IPO that I was only 16 years old and that I knew nothing about the stolen phone but the IPO wrote 21 on my statement and claimed I was lying about my age. I was arraigned as an adult,” she said.

Effiong added that even after four years, her trial had not begun as the court was said to be awaiting advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

PUNCH

The other side of adultery

USUALLY, there could be some excitement in furtive liaisons especially in self-styled ‘liberal’ societies but in other societies with a strong sanction system, such could mean death. For instance, Iran is bent on killing one of its own, Sakineh Mohammadi, who had been convicted of adultery. Initially, she was to be stoned to death but somehow death by stoning has lost its human face and death by hanging is being considered as an alternative.

AS if it matters the manner of death! The point of abuse of basic fundamental human rights is of no significance, nor is the absurdity of punishing an individual for an offence that normally involves a minimum of two actors. It is necessary for women associations to speak up against this gross sexual discrimination and it is strange that the West, which prides itself on liberalism that would cut aid from countries that would not grant gay rights to human flukes has not yet found it expedient to condemn this barbaric dispensation of justice.

BUT perhaps the confusion of the West can be understood against the background of adultery being harder to define in a homosexual relationship than in a heterosexual one. It is hard to understand punishing adultery with death in a society which tolerates the sexual abuse of minors but it is even strange to any kind of logic that the woman picks the bill with her life in furtive liaisons!

Source: Tribune