A man who sells phone accessories and who spent over one year in prison custody after collecting stolen iPhones from a man in order to sell them without knowing that they were stolen has now regained his freedom in Lagos State.
The man, whose name was given simply as Obinna, said to be selling phone accessories in the Ikorodu area of the state, was said to have been approached by a man in November 2021 who said he had some iPhones to sell but Obinna was said to have told him that he would not be able to sell them as he only sold accessories.
(Caption): Obinna after regaining his freedom, as posted by the foundation on its Twitter handle on Tuesday.
However, after much persuasion, Obinna was said to have called some of his friends at the Computer Village to ask if they could help sell the iphones and one of them was said to have shown interest and asked Obinna to collect the iPhones which he did, not knowing that they were stolen.
What became the undoing of Obinna was that some weeks later, the phones were tracked to him and he was arrested by the police on December 12, 2021 in his shop and taken to the Ikeja Police Station.
He was subsequently charged with the offence of conspiracy and sale of stolen phones at the Ogba Magistrate's Court after which he was remanded in prison custody.
His plight was announced by a foundation that usually visits prisons and courts in Lagos State, the Headfort Foundation (Prison Reform Initiative) on its Twitter handle on Tuesday which added that he was seen in custody during the visit of the foundation.
After listening to his plight, a lawyer from the foundation decided to take up his case and began to represent him in court, but the prosecution continued to ask for adjournments as they could not present any witness in court.
After some time, the lawyer asked the court to strike out the case for want of diligent prosecution and the application was granted by the judge who thereafter discharged and acquitted Obinna after he had spent one year and one month in prison custody.
Below are screenshots of some of the tweets by the foundation on the matter: