18-year-old new mom released from Delta prison on compassionate grounds

Jubilation erupted amongst the inmates of Warri Custodial Centre, popularly known as Okere Prison, on Monday when one of the inmates, Miss Beauty Obi, an 18-year-old mother of two weeks old baby, was granted bail by the Chief Judge of Delta State, Hon. Justice Tessy Diai, on compassionate grounds.

The Chief Judge had extended compassion to Beauty Obi, who reportedly delivered 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.

According to the deputy controller of the Custodial Centre, when young Miss Beauty was due for delivery, she was taken to the Warri Central Hospital, where she gave birth through caesarean section, but 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 the sum of 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, while thanking the Chief Judge for the financial assistance, narrated the circumstances that brought her to the Custodial Centre, saying that the police arrested her and the 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 man got the phone, just as she maintained that she was innocent of the armed robbery charge slammed against her.

Out of the 539 warrants of inmates reviewed, 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 ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping and murder.