HOW DID IT START?
On 2nd December 2015, I had gone to do a commercial case in Court 8 of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi. I was in the process of departing the court room when my colleague, Mrs. Genevieve Maguaje, drew my attention to these three underaged boys being led into the court room. They looked confused and unkept. The Charge was being read to them when suddenly the judge noticed they did not understand English. An interpreter was summoned and the judge asked them about their lawyers; to which the responded they did not have one as the police had kept them away from their families. They were not allowed to call anyone until they were callously brought to courr. Then the judge looked my way and said: “Mr. Jimoh, they don’t have a lawyer”; I knew I was in another pro bono case.
They were charged for oil pipeline vandalism & filling 16 fifty-litre kegs with PMS! In reality, they were rounded up in Magboro, Ogun State, when they fought with some Hausa boys who then summoned some Hausa police officers! They were challenged because they went into the surrounding bush to ease themselves, as their rented apartment was without any functional toilet. So the police seized their mobile phones and the money found on them. They were asked to bail themselves with N10,000 each, which they did not have. They were therefore transported to IGP anti pipeline vandalism team in Obalende. They were tortured and asked to sign confessional statements admitting that they committed the crime fabricated by the police!
Trial started on 24th February, 2016 when they were re-arraigned and remanded in prison.
Today, the Court accepted our submission that the Police did not prove their case beyond reasonable doubt and they were discharged and acquitted. The policeman who arrested them said he did not see them scopping PMS into any of the 16 fifty-litre kegs of PMS. The police did not produce a single keg of PMS in court. It was manifestly obvious that the case against them was manufactured!
Knowing the system; after their discharge, I not only got them out; I personally first drove them to Ikoyi Prison to collect their personal effects and then took them home to Magboro this evening.
It was to this case I was going this morning and spent 4 hours in traffic. Luckily for me, the judge came after I got to court. So the judgment was read in my presence.
For these boys, I thank God for their lives. They were incarcerated since 2015 for a crime they did not commit. They could have gone down for life, albeit I would have appealed it!
To the policemen who are fabricating stories, torturing innocent people to sign confessional statement; may your days be long and harrowing and may your ends never know comfort or peace!
O Great God, I have successfully delivered your message that those who have no money, or people, etc in their hours of need have you to these three young men. Please, let these boys know you. Teach them to show the same benevolence you showed them to others they may come across in future. Let them give testimonies about how you, Almighty God, helped and saved them from life imprisonment over what they knew nothing about!
As for me, I plead for as many of these cases as possible so that I may please God before being recalled. I have hinted too many times that I may not be old be going back home. If you know me, weep not but be merry because I gave ample notice. Nothing pleases me more than doing as many pro bono cases as possible.
Another one done and dusted! Father, let my good deeds outweight the bad ones.
All thanks to God. Glory be to God. May His name continue to be praised.