How I was imprisoned for alleged robbery, gave birth in custody — 18-year-old inmate

An 18-year-old mother of a two-week-old baby and inmate of Warri Custodial Centre has narrated how she got arrested by the police and slammed in detention in Warri, Delta.

Miss Beauty Obi, who was delivered of her baby through caesarian section while in prison, said that the police arrested her and her boyfriend at a location where he was about to sell a stolen phone.

The teenage mother, whose mother is from Kwale in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, claimed that she was unaware of how her boyfriend got the phone, maintaining that she was innocent of the armed robbery charge slammed against her.

Meanwhile, Miss Obi has been granted bail by the Chief Judge of Delta, Hon. Justice Tessy Diai, on compassionate grounds.

Her case was one of the 539 warrants of inmates reviewed, out of which the Chief Judge also discharged five, stating that those released were based on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, following their findings that those people had no case to answer.

Among them were Lofore Difference, 37; Innocent Okpaghe, 37; Umukoro Kingsley, 51; and Chenago Wisdom, 29, who were charged with various offences.

The Chief Judge had extended compassion to Beauty Obi, who was delivered of her baby two weeks ago through caesarean section, following an appeal from the deputy controller of the Warri Custodial Centre, Mr Edo Joseph Lucky.

Lucky had passionately narrated the pathetic situation of the teenage mother and her boyfriend, who was admitted to the Custodial Centre while she was pregnant.

The deputy controller of the Custodial Centre said when Miss Obi was due for delivery, she was taken to the Warri Central Hospital, where she gave birth through caesarean section.

According to him, the little child was placed in an incubator for one week before it was reunited with the mother in custody.

Lucky further disclosed that for the one week the child spent in the incubator, the prison authority was spending N1,000 per hour, which, he said, informed his appeal to the Chief Judge to grant her bail to enable her to go to her parents for proper care.

The Chief Judge, who passionately assisted Beauty Obi with N20,000, granted her bail in the sum of N250,000 with one surety in like sum, while the surety, who must be resident within the jurisdiction of the trial court, should depose to an affidavit of means and provide his national identity card NIN number.

The 18-year-old mother, who hails from Obingwa in Imo State, thanked the Chief Judge for the financial assistance.

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