Nigeria Content Online

It is exactly a week since Comfort Monday, an inmate at the
Female Kirikiri Prison, Apapa, Lagos State, gave birth to her son at the Lagos
Island Maternity Hospital on August 1, 2010. Both mother and child are
scheduled to return to prison, where she has been since January 2010, courtesy
of the man she says is the father of her child.

But while Ms Monday might be nursing her child within the four
walls of the prison and pondering what the future holds, a NEXT investigation
reveals she may actually be a victim of injustice. Evidence currently at the
Kirikiri Magistrate court, Apapa, suggests Ms Monday’s age was purposely
manipulated to ensure she gets remanded in prison.

In May 2009, Nadum Nwitua, the alleged father of the baby,
travelled to Elele Alimini, Rivers State, where he met Ezekiel Monday, a poor
and single father barely managing to raise his nine children at a time, his
wife having left him over five years earlier. Mr Nwitua expressed his fondness
for his daughter and promised to give her a better life in Lagos.

“My pikin na 16 years when he come carry am say he go train am
for Lagos. Na because she no dey do anything for village, people talk say na
big man, that she go go better school, say make I let am follow am go,” said Mr
Monday in a telephone interview.

Altered court documents

From Mr. Monday’s account, his daughter is 17 this year.
Semi-literate and unable to write coherently, this was the age she told the
Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at the Oko Oba Police station.

James Dakarin, a police constable with force number 252661,
wrote her statement when she was arrested on January 24, 2010, after Mr Nwitua
alleged that she conspired with his security man, identified as Dala, and a
neighbour, Kennedy Enoma, to steal N295,000 from him. On the typed charge sheet
presented at the court in which Ms Monday and Mr Kennedy were accused of
conspiracy to steal and stealing, Ms Monday’s age was visibly altered with a
black pen from 17 to 18 years. This same alteration was discovered to have been
made on her statement paper which had the original age visibly cancelled and
replaced with 18 years.

For Lucas Koyejo, the South West Zone Head of the Legal and
Investigating Department of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
changing a word or figure in judicial documents is an offence “where the
intention is to falsify the document. If it can be proved that it was done unlawfully,
then it would amount to giving false information to pervert the course of
justice”.

Joseph Otteh, the executive director of Access to Justice, an
advocacy group promoting equal rights and justice, thinks the same and adds:
“If her age was falsified, it is to draw the court’s attention to the fact that
she is a minor fraudulently being tried as an adult. The court needs to see the
misrepresentation and take the matter through a juvenile track.”

Both lawyers say if the seeming wrongful detention of Ms Comfort
at the prison is established based on the fact that she is a minor, the next
step is “to know the extent of involvement of each party to the detention” and
appropriate punishment meted out. They also agree a civil suit for damages
could be considered.

This view is shared by the Lagos State police spokesperson,
Frank Mba. He said handwriting experts would be called to determine the
authenticity of the documents before the court.

“At the end of the day, if found to be altered, this would
amount to gross misconduct on the part of the officer and he will be tried in
orderly room and punished accordingly,” Mr Mba said, but did not clarify the
degree of punishment such an offence carries.

Another child marriage?

Mr Nwitua, in his statement, confirmed he was given the
responsibility of Ms Monday’s wellbeing by her father. He goes further to say
he brought her to Lagos for the purpose of marriage.

In his words: “I was given Comfort by the father, Monday, to
take to Lagos for marriage/training.” And according to Ms Monday, immediately
after they returned to Lagos, “that is when he started sleeping with me. It has
been long. At first, I was going to school but, after, I stopped. I was doing
housegirl for him.” By the time she told him she was pregnant, she said he had
become physically abusive.

The alleged sexual escapade was known by other members of Mr
Nwitua’s household located at Plot 2, Owode Street, Abule Egba, Lagos State,
which doubles as Mr Nwitua’s residence and business address – Gbedeco (Nig.) Ltd.
This was reported to the police by Mr Nwitua’s 15-year-old niece, Princess
Nwitua.

“She refused to go to school and when I asked, she said is not
feeling fine. She came to my room and said that she wants to go back to her
place in Port Harcourt. She said she did not want to live with my uncle again,
that my uncle is an evil man and that my uncle is sleeping with her,” Miss
Nwitua said.

Mr Koyejo says if Mr Nwitua has “actually been sleeping with her
as an underage, then his action amounts to rape, which carries a sentence of
life imprisonment under the Child Rights Law of Lagos State,” and “will be made
to face the full wrath of the law”.

A case of victimisation

On the instructions of Mr Nwitua, who had travelled to the
northern part of Nigeria on January 17, 2010, Ms Monday sold some compressors
to one Wahab, as identified by Mr Nwitua, for N95,000.

She handed the money to the security man, Dala, who Mr Nwitua
acknowledges kept his money and had access to the office drawer; who he “always
sometimes asked to collect money from there”; and where he alleges the N200,000
was stolen from.

When Mr Nwitua returned on January 23, 2010, Dala had packed his
belongings and absconded with the N95,000. He got Ms Monday arrested and told
the Police that Mr Enoma “is a bonafide friend of Dala and at the same time the
boyfriend of Comfort.” He said both Dala and Kennedy “always meet regularly and
sometimes for a long meeting either on my premises or at my gate”.

But this is at variance with the statement of his younger brother’s
daughter, Miss Nwitua, who told the police “I have not seen Ken before in our
compound before”.

A threatening
complainant

Through all this, Mr Nwitua, who instituted the case asking the
police to recover the money for him “and of course investigate any allegation
raised against me by all the parties involved”, has refused to talk to the
press and repeatedly threatened this reporter.

“Don’t go and publish anything that will cost your company a lot
of money o! Otherwise, I will not spare anybody in this matter,” Mr Nwitua at a
time said. The last time NEXT reached him, he said “Look, I warned you before.
You are looking for trouble. You are not listening,” before cutting the line.

Meanwhile, Ms Monday’s case has been adjourned four times and is
yet to be heard at the Kirikiri Magistrate Court, Apapa. No reason has been
given each time for the magistrate, Ope Agbe, not showing up in court.

It appears Mr Nwitua’s intention was to ensure Ms Monday
remained incarcerated for eight months, thus ensuring she gave birth to her
child away from public view and his wife and children, who are said to live in
the United Kingdom. The question remains, what’s next now that Ms Monday has
given birth?

Her case comes up September 27, 2010.