By A 23-year-old Nigerian lady, Itunu Olajumoke Babalola, has raised alarm after she was sentenced for a crime she didn’t commit n Cote d’Ivoire.
Itunu’s story was shared by Nigerian journalist, David Hundeyin, via a Twitter thread, on Sunday.
According to David, the lady in 2019 had to travel all the way from Cote d’Ivoire to Ibadan in Nigeria to visit her ailing mother. That marked the beginning of her ordeal.
“Shortly before Itunu was due to travel, her flat was burgled and items worth more than N300,000 were stolen including her TV and gas cooker. Despite the blow, she decided to travel anyway after reporting the incident to the police. She returned from her trip in October 2019,” the journalist stated.
“Upon returning, she was informed by a lodger she left in her flat that the thief had been identified. The thief turned out to be a 14 year-old boy who lived nearby. His embarrassed dad apologised and admitted that his son was a habitual thief. The items had already been sold.”
On Wednesday, November 6, she was invited by the police and the DPO offered to settle her with N100,000, saying the thief was his nephew.
However, Itunu rejected the settlement to the chagrin of the police officer who according to the journalist did everything to frustrate her case.
David continued: “In Abidjan, she hired a lawyer to attend the appointment with her, all to no avail as the police refused to cooperate. Frustrated, she returned home to Bondoukou. Around 5PM the following day, a convoy of police vehicles showed up outside her house and publicly arrested her.
“On getting to the station, she was charged with theft – the theft of her own items in her own apartment. She spent the next 4 days in police custody, after which she was taken out of the cell and offered her freedom if she agreed to sign papers dropping her case.”
Her decision to go to court turned out to be a monumental error of judgment, as she was denied adequate legal representation or a chance to properly state her case by the French-speaking court.
She was later sentenced to 20 years in jail term. Itunu’s effort to clear her name has been futile.
The journalist added that when her Nigerian friends in Cote d’Ivoire approached the Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan to provide consular assistance for her case, officials reportedly asked for N400,000 to get her a passport before anything could be done.
Itunu said she has exhausted all her savings over the past year, spending well over N1m to try to clear her name.
The story has sparked outrage from many Nigerians on social media, particularly Twitter. The hashtag #JusticeForItunu is now trending on the blue app.
