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#JusticeForItunu: Nigerians Call For Release Of Lady Wrongly Accused Of Theft, Sentenced To 20 Years In Cote D’Ivoire

By Edna Wande
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#JusticeForItunu: Nigerians Call For Release Of Lady Wrongly Accused Of Theft, Sentenced To 20 Years In Cote D'IvoireMany Nigerians have taken to social media to call for demand justice for a 23-year-old Nigerian lady identified as Itunu Olajumoke Babalola, sentenced to 20 years in Ivory Coast prison for theft. 

Itunu’s plight came into limelight after 2020 People Journalism Prize for Africa winner, David Hundeyin, on Sunday shared a thread on Twitter detailing the circumstances that led to the lady’s incarceration in the West African country.

Sharing the report in a lengthy Twitter thread via his handle @DavidHundeyin, said the lady is currently detained in a Cote d’Ivoire detention camp for refusing to accept police settlement of N100,000 for the crime of burglary committed in her house by nephew of a Divisional Police Officer. 

He revealed that the apartment of the lady, who is a trader based in Bondoukou, Côte d’Ivoire, was burgled shortly before she visited her sick mother in Oyo state, Nigeria in September 2019.

According to Hundeyin, items worth N300,000 were stolen including her television and gas cooker.

However, Itunu embarked on her journey to Nigeria nonetheless after reporting the incident to the police. She returned from her trip in October 2019.

Upon returning, she was informed by a lodger she left in her flat that the thief had been identified.

The thief turned out to be a 14 year-old boy who lived nearby. His embarrassed dad apologised and admitted that his son was a habitual thief. Unfortunately, the items had already been sold.

Itunu reported the case to the police and the Divisional Police Inspector informed her that the suspect was his nephew. He then offered her a settlement worth roughly N100,000 to drop the case.

The Nigerian lady reportedly refused the settlement, citing the disparity between the value of the stolen items and what was offered.

Her action angered the DPO, who then began to make effort to frustrate her into dropping the case.

Days after her meeting with the DPO, a convoy of police vehicles showed up outside her house and publicly arrested her.

On getting to the police station, she was reportedly charged with theft – the theft of her own items in her own apartment.

Itunu spent the next 4 days in police custody, after which she was taken out of the cell and offered her freedom if she agreed to sign papers dropping her case.

However, Itunu rejected the offer and chose to go to court instead. During the meeting, she said she overheard an officer saying “Elle est une Nigériane? Elle mourra ici!“, which means “She’s a Nigerian? She will die here!”

Unfortunately, the French-speaking court did not allow her adequate legal representation or give her a chance to properly state her case.

She was then convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment as it was learnt that her case was further complicated due to her decision to identify herself to the court as “Becky Paul“.

She says she did that to avoid getting her family name mixed up in bad news and potentially upsetting her aged mom.

According to Hundeyin, as a result of this, for the past one year and 4 months since her conviction, Itunu alias “Becky Paul” has become a forgotten inmate at notorious Maison d’arrêt et de Correction Bondoukou (Bondoukou Remand and Correction Facility).

The writer stated that when her Nigerian friends in Cote d’Ivoire approached Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan to provide consular assistance for her case, officials reportedly asked for N400,000 to get Itunu a passport before anything can be done.

She however said she has exhausted all her savings over the past year, spending well over N1m to try to clear her name.

Hundeyin revealed that the young lady has since lost hope and has attempted suicide twice.

Hundeyin then demanded justice for Itunu and quick intervention by the federal government for her release.

Following this, many Nigerians using their Twitter handles called on the Federal Government, Minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and Nigerians in Diaspora Commission to come to the aid of the young lady.

Reacting to the reported incident, NIDCOM stated that it will investigate the case and that its officials in Abidjan will help out.

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