DRAMA IN OWERRI AS FREED INMATE REFUSES TO LEAVE PRISON

It was a pathetic drama in the Owerri High Court premises Friday
morning when an inmate who is believed to have awaited trial in
prison for upwards of seven years was acquitted of any wrong
doing and discharged by an Owerri Magistrate Court.
According to CrimeFacts, instead of the usual jubilation that
follow any ruling of ‘discharged and acquitted’, the inmate,
Sylvester Obata (not real names); wearing a long face, headed
straight for the Prison van that brought them to court, only to be
intercepted by a prison guard who reminded him he was free to
go home.
To the chagrin of eyewitnesses, Obata said he was going
nowhere demanding to be allowed entry into the Prison Van
back to prison.
The prison guard who mistook Obata’s statement for a weird
joke was jolted when he tried to push him away from the prison
van and was defiantly resisted by the freed inmate.
What seemed like a mild drama turned
nearly absurd when the calm of the court
premises was shattered by Obata’s shouts and pleas to be
allowed to go back to prison and he thrashed about and
struggled with several prison officials who wanted him out of
the court and on his way home.
According to eyewitnesses, it took the effort of over six prison
officials, court workers and policemen to get the freed inmate
out of the court premises.
Obata who refused to budge even in the face of threats of
brutality by security men, had to be dragged on the floor while
he raised hell in the court premises.
Outside the prison, Obata sustained his raving, telling whoever
cared to listen why he should be allowed to remain in jail.
According to him, setting him free was no big deal, but his
plight outside prison is what the court should have also
considered.
“I have no place to go or anybody to go to. I have no job or
business.I want to go back to prison where I can at least be
sure to eat something everyday.”
The evidently apprehensive former prison inmate, demanded to
see the Chief Judge of the state to plead his case himself and
explain to him why it was better to keep him in prison than
outside prison.

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