How Good Samaritan ended up spending time in prison�

A trader, identified by one name Mrs. Bolanle, had spent some time in prison over a dispute with her neighbour.

This medium gathered that the trader, in 2019, had agreed to accommodate her neighbour’s goods in her own store. It was a rainy season; she made the gesture to prevent her neighbour’s goods from getting damaged.

But the said Mrs. Bolanle’s act of generosity would later become her undoing.

It happened that rain got into her store, which affected the neighbour’s goods she offered to protect. The neighbour believed that she was negligent in her duty of care for her goods. And by that reason, she must pay dearly for it.

The said neighbour decided to lodge a complaint with the executives of the market. Dissatisfied with the outcome, she pressed further to report the matter to the police. Prior to the police invitation, both women had had an altercation.

The police arrested and charged Mrs. Bolanle went to court for the offence of breach of public peace.

The defendant denied the claim brought against her by the police —and not the complainant in the apparently civil matter.

Exercising its discretion, the court granted Mrs. Bolanle a bail and order her remand in the custody of correctional Center, until she is able to meet the terms set.

Mrs. Bolanle was unable to meet the bail terms easily and ended up spending a few weeks in prison.

Headfort Foundation, a not-for-profit offering legal aid services met Mrs. Bolanle at the Samuel Ilori Courthouse, Ogba, where she was brought from prison as an awaiting trial inmate.

“Our lawyers stationed at Ogba magistrate court mobile office took on the case and represented her.

“Trial was conducted and … the court delivered it judgment and held that Mrs. Bolanle did not breach public peace with her conduct! She was thereafter discharged and acquitted,” Headfort Foundation stated in a statement.

The organisation believed that police unprofessionalism in the legal matter was responsible for Mrs. Bolanle’s predicament and why the matter had lingered for five years.