It was a rather strange occurrence or should I call it bizarre?

A man was said to have commit­ted an offence that could send him on a permanent visit to the guillotine. But, fate intervened and he got a chance to stand trial. Chances were that he could by some stroke of luck to walk free. How­ever, he was ‘sorely tempted’ by Satan and he elected to steal an item belonging to the prosecutor right at the venue of the trial! Well, that was what happened last Tuesday, the 16th day of February 2016, at a division of the FCT High Court of Justice, sitting in Apo.

As the Chief Prosecutor of the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. J.C.A Idachaba, O.C. Legal, FCT Police Com­mand was robing (dressing up in his lawyer apparel) outside the courtroom, he dropped his IPhone on top of his case files. In rush to don his wig, gown and hurry into the courtroom, he did not re­alize that one of the armed robbery sus­pects sitting close to his file had adopted his phone.

At the end of the day’s sitting, the Police Chief wanted to make calls and suddenly realised that his phone was missing. One of the court staff dialed the phone and it rang but nobody picked it. Then he re­called putting it on silent mode before leaving for court that morning. At that point he had gotten agitated but again it was suggested that he might have left the phone in his office. Off he went but alas, after ransacking his table and search­ing everywhere he could in his office, the phone was not found. Then he got his secretary to call the court staff to tell them his phone was not in his office and that he was on his way back.

He got back to the court and the search began. Eventually the phone was traced to Kuje prisons and guess what? It had been sold. Any further guess? It was sold to an alleged Boko Haram suspect for N25, 000 right there in Kuje prison! But you ask, how and where did some­body in prison custody get money from? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Any­way, when the phone was tracked down to Kuje prison, Idachaba sent word that his phone must be retrieved and come Wednesday the 17th, he got his IPhone back.

The Authority Law gathered that prison officials often connive with some of the inmates particularly the ones that have access to money. In fact, Boko Haram suspects are said to have outside sources who supply them with cash. It happened that in the course of ferrying the phone to the buyer, an official who acted as a go-between saw Idachaba’s photograph, re­moved the sim card and quickly notified him. He handed the phone over the buyer anyway and N25, 000 exchanged hands. All said, the men were apprehended and the phone was retrieved. But please tell me, are our prisons, reformatories or breeding grounds? For a man standing trial for armed robbery to rob right inside the court is amazing. For prison officials to connive with inmates under whatever guise is most reprehensible.


http://www.authorityngr.com/2016/02/Reformatory-or-breeding-grounds-/