A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Onitsha, Anambra State, has granted bail to the sum of five hundred thousand naira to a fifty-four-year-old widow and mother of a girl child; who is facing trial for allegedly conspiring with others to break into a building with intent to commit felony, among other five-count charges.

Judiciary Correspondent, Joseph Egbeocha reports that with the Inspector General of Police as complainant, Mrs Perpetua Nwagbo, from Umunachi village of Osuama autonomous community in Isiala Mbano Local Government area of Imo State, alongside her brother-in-law, Michael Nwagbo, aged forty-five, and others now at large are accused of conspiring among themselves sometime in 2020 at Onitsha, within Onitsha Magisterial District, to break into the said building with intent to commit felony, offence punishable under section four-nine-five(b) of the Criminal Code Law, CAP 36 Revised Laws of Anambra State of Nigeria 1991.

Among other charges brought against the defendants are that they criminally and unlawfully broke into the fence housing Plot No 288 Trans-Nkisi Layout Onitsha, said to be property of one Mr Obiora Ezeakabekwe, and chased away his workers who were working on the land, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section three-eight-one of the Criminal Code Law CAP 36 Revised Laws of Anambra State of Nigeria 1991.

The defendants are also accused of giving false information to the police by denying knowledge of the existence of the said plot of land, as well as their involvement in any transaction relating to the land, an offence punishable under section one-five-four (1) of the Criminal Code Law.

Speaking to newsmen after the court granted the defendants bail and adjourned the case to twenty-second October for continuation of trial, an Owerri-based lawyer and leader of the defense team, Sylvia Iwejor, said that their widow client was arrested and detained on trumped-up charges, adding that the bail conditions for her and co-defendant were very severe.

On her part, the Convener of Ônurube, a Non-Governmental Organization based in the five Southeast states of Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, and with special focus on gender-based violence, Marjorie Ezihe, explained that without frantic search at police facilities that led to her being found in police custody in Imo, Mrs Nwagbo would have been brought to the Onitsha court in kangaroo style for continued detention.

While G.T Nev appeared for the complainant, IGP, Donald Nwodom and Faith Obisike, Ikechukwu Chuke; from National Human Rights Commission, and Mmesoma Oli; from International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA, appeared for the defendants.

Meanwhile, before the defendants were arraigned, the NGO had petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over alleged deprivation of right of inheritance, perpetuating harmful widowhood practices, harmful traditional practices and fundamental rights abuse of Mrs Nwagbo by the Federal Investigation Department, FID, Abuja, and State Investigation Department, SID, units of the Nigerian Police, as well as one Dr Charles Nzeh.

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