Juliana Francis
The Headfort Foundation, a Prison Reform Initiative, has rescued a welder, Salaudeen from prison after he was arrested, arraigned, and remanded in prison custody without proper investigation.
The Foundation, which mentioned this on its Twitter handle, said that the welder hails from Ogun State.
According to the Foundation, Salaudeen was living with his uncle in Ayetoro before his arrest.
The Foundation explained that on the 26th of March 2023, Salaudeen left his uncle’s place in Abeokuta to look for a job but after spending a week, he could not get one, so he decided to return to his uncle.
While at Abeokuta, he was sleeping in a church in Ayedade, Abeokuta. On the day he was set to go back to Ayetoro, he had no transport fare, so he decided to find a menial job to raise money for transportation fares.
He found a place to cut grasses and he agreed with the people in that area that he should come the following day to cut the grasses, so he went back to the church to pass the night as usual.
The next day, he saw a cutlass on the church premises and took it along with him to cut the grass.
While cutting the grass, some people in the area accosted him and to his surprise, he was taken to the police station. The police officers started questioning him on how he got the cutlass which he explained to them. He was accused of terrorising the community with the cutlass, but he denied the allegation.
The Foundation narrated: “He was then made to write a statement. The next day, he was charged to court on a one-count charge of being armed in order to cause terror.
“Salaudeeen was arraigned on the 17th day of April 2023 and was granted bail but he was not able to perfect it due to financial constraints.
“After the case had suffered a series of adjournments with no witness and the defendant had no legal representation, the court registrar on the 14th of May, 2023, referred his case to our lawyers at Isabo court in Abeokuta and @nafisatahmedlawal started representing him in court.
“On the 15th of May, 2023, none of the prosecution witnesses was in court, our lawyer applied that the case be struck out, and it was granted. Salaudeen’s sister was present in court on this day and she was grateful to Headfort. She decided to take Salaudeen back with her to Ibadan and also promised to help secure him a job. We want to appreciate @OSA_foundation for their contribution to the implementation of this project in Ogun state.”
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