Prison has hardened me as a criminal - female robbery suspect tells her story
Thirty-five-year-old Juliet Albert, a native of Utu village, Egbema Local Government Area, Rivers State, said she would not have befriended Ugochukwu, the alleged leader of the gang if she had learnt any lessons from her stay in the prison.
She called on government to focus on building prisons that can reform convicts and make them better citizens when they finish their terms, noting that most convicts take Nigerian prisons as higher institutions where they learn more about crime.
Other alleged members of the gang include Francis Kalu a.k.a. Mopol (23), Jackson Imoh a.k.a. Airforce Bullet (23), Solomon Onyemaechi a.k.a. Soldier and Ugochukwu a.k.a. Navy.
A police source said unknown to the suspects, the force men had been monitoring the activities of the suspects in Ajegunle, especially the boundary and Tolu areas, including a popular market in the area called Kasuwa, where anything can be sold without any law enforcement agent raising an eyebrow.
“I was charged to court for being in possession of Indian hemp and was later sent to Kirikiri prison where I stayed for four months. I was freed on May 20, 2013.
“I learnt sewing while I was in prison, but let me tell you the naked truth: there was nothing to learn in prison. Rather the prison hardens the inmates because of the hard life there. I was only lucky to have been selected as one of the cooks that prepared food for the inmates.
“I would have continued as a food vendor when I came out of prison, but I had no money. We used to cook half-done beans which we ate with gari. We also ate eba with ordinary soup. No meat. Only church people used to bring good food on Sundays. People who have rich relations also get good food because they get money from their people with which they bought food outside.
“Prison soup has no meat. It is only on Fridays that they put fish.
“When I returned from prison, I started selling ogogoro. I stopped selling Indian hemp because it was what sent me to prison. I was arrested this time because of my boyfriend, Ugochukwu.
“When the police came, they asked me about my boyfriend, Ugochukwu, and I told them that he was not around. They became annoyed and asked me to follow them to the police station. I did not know anything about how they collected money from somebody.
The second suspect, Jackson, said: “I finished JSS 3 in Ojora Memorial Senior Secondary School, Boundary, Ajegunle. My result was seized, but I took GCE (General Certificate of Education) and cleared six papers at credit level.
“I later went to work at Papillion Industries, a company that makes plastic buckets. We were paid on a daily basis and I was paid N450 daily. At times, I would go home with N550 or N600, depending on how much work I did.
“I later left the company and went to Tin Can Island in Apapa area of Lagos to look for another job. It was my late friend, Wale, who took me there. There we were doing clearing and I was there for eight months. It was whenever Wale got a clearing job that I got some money.
“My problem started when he went to Igbokoda in Ondo State and none of his clients or boys wanted to give me a job. After five months, I became frustrated and started thinking of what to do.
“I met one customs officer and started working with him. I used to help him to check what was inside containers and he used to give me transport money every day. I also used to make some small money to help myself.
“One day, I met Ugochukwu through a friend named Michael and told him my frustration and plan to look for another job. I even told him to look for work for me. Ugochukwu told me that he could not find work for me. He advised me to purchase a form for recruitment into the army, saying that government wanted to recruit more people.
“I took my mother to his house and she thanked him for that advice. I have six credits while Ugochukwu told me that the army only required three credits to qualify for recruitment. I went to Union Bank and bought a form. I also travelled to Calabar and Ikeja for Army and Air Force examinations and interviews.
“My name came out in the army and we were asked to go for medical screening, but I had no money. I begged Ugochukwu to help me with some money but he refused.
“Another form came out in April. Before I bought the form, I went to our pastor to pray for me. The examination we wanted to take was to come up on July 4. There was a space to be filled by a divisional police officer of my area.
“I told Juliet about it and she said I should not worry because her boyfriend, Ugochukwu, knows many DPOs, including the one at Ajeromi. She assured me that with Ugochukwu’s intervention, the DPO would sign my form because he was Ugochukwu’s cousin.
“I am not a soldier or air force personnel. Ugochukwu slapped Don, Gabriel’s cousin and police informant, and Don’s mother was begging me to help him but I could not do anything. She was begging me to rescue her son as Ugochukwu was slapping him.
“I am not even interested in joining the force again. I want to go to the university to study Electrical Engineering. I want to buy JAMB form.”
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