Impact Stories
Ola
was a Panel beater working at Alaba, in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Sometime
in May 2014, Ola was on his way back from work when he saw some people run by
him. A few seconds later, soldiers ran after those persons. To his dismay, the
soldiers returned angrily and questioned why he didn't stop the persons that
ran by him. He explained to the soldiers that he didn't know them or why they
were running and couldn't just have stopped them from running.
His
response infuriated the soldiers more and they took him to base. The senior
officer at the Barracks refused to let the soldiers keep him at the Barracks so
they took him to the police station and reported that he didn't prevent the
escape of the people they were chasing.
The
Officers at Orile Police Station moved him alongside other suspects taken to
SARS Office Ikeja where he was later charged to Court for the offence of Armed
robbery when he couldn't meet up with bail demands. The family members did
their best and got him legal representation. After a while, they could no
longer afford to pay so the lawyer withdrew his appearance.
Since
2014, he remained in custody with no lawyer representing him until July 2022
when he got Headfort Foundation's contact from an inmate, and he called to
explain his ordeal. Our lawyer- Itunuoluwa Awolu took his brief and traced his
case to Lagos State High Court TBS. She began representing him for free.
On
Tuesday 11th of October 2022, just like every other day in which his case had come up for a trial,
there was no witness. The prosecution informed the Court that they intend to
call official witnesses who happened to be Police Officers, but they are not
familiar with the witnesses and do not have their contact details or means of
reaching them. Ola, who had been languishing in prison since 2014 awaiting
trial was immediately released by the Court, and the charges against him were
struck out.
