Sanitation: Court Jails Three In Abia

An Abia Mobile Sanitation Court in Aba on Saturday sentenced three persons for contempt.
One of the offenders, Samuel Okorie, a driver, of 203 Ohanku Road, Aba, who claimed to be deaf and dumb, was jailed one week or to pay N10,000 fine.
Okorie had refused to answer questions from the court, which sat at Alaoji in Ugwunagbor Local Government Area.
The Senior Magistrate, Dr Diamond Olewengwa, had asked the convict where he lived and rather than respond, he gesticulated like a deaf and dumb person.
The magistrate said: “You do not hear or speak”, and Okorie nodded his head in affirmation.
Olewengwa said: “Wait, you will hear and speak now when I finish;” he signed a committal form for Okorie and read the sentence to him.
When the court sentenced him, Okorie asked: “What did I do that my sentence should vary from those of other sanitation offenders?” Immediately, the policeman handcuffed him with others for movement to Aba Prison.
The court also jailed Chinedu Ikeaja, a mechanic, to two weeks or N20,000 fine for contempt.
Ikeaja, who was arrested on his way to fetch water from a borehole at 7.55 a.m by health workers, said that he had cleaned his workshop at Alaoji and was going to fetch water before his arrest.
After getting his name and address, the magistrate fined Ikeaji N1,000 for contravening the sanitation law but he protested and started to disturb the court.
The magistrate signed a committal form for Ikeaja and sentenced him to two weeks in jail or N20,000 fine.
The magistrate asked the convict to return to his court at Aba –na-Ohazu on August 9 to enable him to know if he had been purged of his contempt and for a review or otherwise of the sentence.
The court also jailed a woman, Felicia Ikechukwu of Oyigbo, Rivers State to two days or N10,000 fine for contempt.
The magistrate had fined Ikechukwu N2,000 and awarded N1,000 cost but she protested and refused to pay on the ground that she had no money.
When an elderly woman, who claimed to be Ikechukwu’s mother pleaded with the court, the fine was reduced to N1,000, yet she refused to pay.
The court asked her to keep her car keys with the court bailiff if she wanted to go; she refused and instead fought the magistrate’s police orderly who asked her not to go without keeping the keys.
The woman’s attitude angered the magistrate, who called her back to the court, signed her contempt form and sentenced her to jail for two days.