Impact Stories
Dominic, a native of Benue State moved to Lagos State sometime
in 2015 in search of a better life. In Lagos, he lived with his elder brother,
and he got a job as a security officer at Shoprite.
After working as a security officer at Shoprite, Dominic got another
security job at Dangote Refinery. On the 22nd day of February, 2020,
Dominic was on his way home from Computer Village, Ikeja after having the time
of his life, when he started having stomach upset. Looking for where he could
relieve himself, he went to a bush close to an estate called Minimah Estate.
While at it, A security officer at the entrance of the estate
pointed torch at him and asked him what he was doing there. Dominic tried to
explain his situation to the security officer, but he refused to listen and asked
Dominic to follow him into the estate to explain himself.
Dominic was scared to follow him into the estate because he did
not know what could happen. While they were both arguing, fight ensued between
the both of them, the security officer injured Dominic with the matchet he was
holding during the fight and Dominic in return reciprocated with the same
matchet.
Noticing that the fight was getting out of control, Dominic ran
away. While Dominic was running, he heard the security officer shouting `ole'
(Thief) and to avoid a situation of jungle justice, Dominic decided to report
the incident at the Police Station closed to the estate.
On getting to the station, Dominic noticed that the security
officer had ran back and the police officers there asked him to sit down but
when they saw him drenched in his own blood, one of the officers decided to
take him to the hospital for treatment. After the treatment, the officer took
Dominic back to the station for him to give his statement before following him to
the estate to make arrest.
On getting to the estate, the Police officer was about to carry
out the arrest of the security officer, when he saw some military officials come
out of the estate. The military officials told the police that Dominic was not
afraid to come to their estate to fight their security and told the police
officer to arrest Dominic and charged him to court for fighting with their
security officer. Heeding to the military officers' orders, Dominic was charged
to court.
On arraignment on the 25th day of February, 2020, Dominic
was granted bail in court but unable to perfect his bail. On the 1st of
March, 2021 Dominic met one of the Lawyers at Headfort Foundation stationed
at the Ogba Magistrate Court (one of the Mobile Offices of our “Lawyers
Without Border” Project) and his brief was taken. Afterwards the
matter was adjourned severally due to various reasons such as the absence of
the witnesses, the courts not siting due to the pandemic and the strike
embarked on by the Judiciary.
On resumption of court activities after the strike, due
diligence was carried out by our Lawyer to know the new date, On the 13th
day of July 2021, our lawyer represented Dominic in Court and made an
application for striking out of the charges against him since the Complainant
was not ready to prosecute his matter. The Court going through the records of
proceedings, discovered that the
Complainant after arraignment never appeared in court and
granted our application, thus, discharging Dominic of all charges.
Sadly, Dominic spent One year and Five months in custody before
his release.
