A Chief Magistrate’s court sitting at
Ebute Meta, Lagos State, has ordered that 39-year-old Rosemary Chukwu be
remanded in prison pending when she would perfect her bail terms.
Chukwu was accused of conspiring with some others to kidnap her neighbour’s son, Emmanuel Kelvin, 6.
The police said the Cross River State
indigene tied up the victim’s mouth, hands and legs before stuffing him
in a travelling box.
The incident happened in the Majidun, Ikorodu area of Lagos.
PUNCH Metro had reported in June that the suspect and her children denied knowing about Kelvin’s whereabouts.
Our correspondent reported that Chukwu
allegedly left her neighbours, who were looking for the boy, and said
she was travelling with a box on her head.
The landlady was said to have asked
people to give her a chase and when the travelling box fell, an
unconscious Kelvin was found.
A mob was said to have beaten her to a pulp before security operatives arrived at the scene and saved her from being lynched.
Upon interrogation, she allegedly claimed she was sent by a pastor who had been tormenting her in her dreams.
The mother of four was arraigned on three counts of kidnapping and attempted murder.
The charges read in part, “That you,
Rosemary Chukwu, on June 25, 2014, at about 7.30am at Omo-Ologede
Street, Majidun, Ikorodu, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did
conspire with others now at large to unlawfully abduct by kidnapping one
of your neighbour’s child in an Echolacc box which you carried on your
head, travelling to an unknown place before your arrest.
“That you used cloths to tie the mouth,
hands and legs of one Emmanuel Kelvin, aged six years, with intent to
unlawfully kill him, you forcefully put him inside a box which resulted
in his being unconscious.”
The police prosecutor, DSP Etim Nkankuk,
said the offences were punishable under sections 409, 269 and 288 of
the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.
Chukwu said she was not guilty of the
charges and elected summary trial. Her defence counsel, Ola Ogunbiyi,
asked for her bail in liberal terms.
But the police prosecutor urged the
court to deny her bail. Nkankuk said, “Aside from the fact that the
defendant has no fixed address in Lagos, the six-year-old victim has
been hospitalised since the incident.”
The defence counsel denied the claim adding that, “the charges are frivolous.”
The Chief Magistrate, O.O. Olatunji admitted Chukwu to bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum.
He said, “The sureties must be gainfully
employed, with evidence of tax payment. They should also deposit the
sum of N50, 000 in the designable account of the Chief Registrar. They
should be blood relations of the defendant.
“Meanwhile, the case file should be
duplicated for legal advice, and it is ordered that the defendant be
remanded pending the perfection of her bail terms.”
PUNCH
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