BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Twenty-year-old Janet Ismail, mother-of-two, is full of regrets months after paying dearly for her alleged misdeeds.
She lost her matrimony and her integrity after languishing in incarceration as an awaiting trial inmate for delving into criminality. While in prison, she said that her husband, in-laws and family members deserted her.
Recalling her travails in prison custody, the woman lamented that had she known that the cost of her action would be overbearing, she would not have tried it at all.
For more than five months in detention, she continued to lament her woes as she recounted her undoing without the certainty that reprieve may come her way soon. She was hunted by the pain to which her innocent baby was subjected.
Ismail was said to have broken into her neighbour’s shop at Orita Elelede area of Osogbo, carting away assorted female dresses.
The woman, who was reported to be pregnant at the time she committed the crime, was delivered of a baby boy about two weeks after engaging in the crime.
However, she said that she ran out of luck when one of her sisters-in-laws visited her Orita Elelede residence to felicitate with her on her safe delivery.
The Point learnt that the bubble burst when, unknown to her, her sister-in-law wore one of the stolen dresses in the neighborhood. The owner of the burgled shop identified the stolen dress upon sighting it. She immediately reported the development at the Dugbe Police Station, Osogbo.
The nursing mother was subsequently arrested and whisked to the station for questioning.
When arraigned in court for theft before Magistrate A. A. Olayade, in Osogbo, on March 29, police prosecutor, Inspector Kayode Adeoye, said that the defendant committed the offence at night, on March 2.
According to the prosecutor, the woman broke into a shop belonging to Iyabo Modinat Olalere and stole dresses worth N300, 000.
She was alleged to have committed an offence contrary to Section 383 and punishable under sections 413 and 390(9) of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, Volume II, Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.
The defendant, standing trial with her child strapped to her back, pleaded not guilty to the two counts of stealing.
Ismail had no legal representation. Neither her husband nor any of her relations was in court while standing trial.
The Magistrate ordered that she should be remanded at the Ilesa Correctional Centre. She was taken into custody with her baby.
It was learnt that her woes were compounded with the strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria.
Reprieve came her way five months after when a non-governmental organisation, the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Osun State chapter, visited the Correctional Centre.
The NGO offered to take her matter up. Luckily for her, when the matter was mentioned in court recently, the complainant, having compassion on her, withdrew the case from court.
Magistrate M. A. Olatunji, who sat on the matter, however, ordered Olalere to testify on oath that she was not forced to let go of the case.
The plaintiff told the court that, “I was moved to pity when I saw the newborn baby’s condition. I have decided to pardon her because of her child.”
The police prosecutor told the court that after a search was carried out on Ismail’s house, 24 pieces of clothes were found. He prayed the court to return the stolen items to the owner.
The case was struck out and the magistrate ordered that the exhibits (dresses) be returned to the owner after Ismail had pleaded guilty to the charges which were read to her afresh.
In an interview with The Point, Ismail said, “I planned to be wearing the dresses after giving birth to my child. My husband is a transporter and he has two wives. He only buys foodstuffs whenever he visits me and I don’t have any work. My child and I really suffered in prison but for the assistance of some NGOs and other philanthropists who visited and gave some relief items.
“My greatest worry was that my husband abandoned me in prison. He did not even show up during his son’s naming ceremony in prison. I don’t want to have anything to do with him again.”
A counsel from Legal Aid Council who doubles as chairman, International Federation of Women Lawyers in Osun State, Folashade Ipede-Adekanmi, said that it was discovered that the husband moved out of home after the woman was arrested by the police.
Ismail, a native of Ogbomoso who alleged that Muideen, her husband, failed in his responsibility to provide for her and her children, begged for money in court to enable her to transport herself to her hometown in Oyo State.
