Mother gets 1 month sentence for abandonment

 

 An Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court on Thursday sentenced a 40-year- old mother to one month community service for abandoning her two little children at a railway crossing in Ilupeju.
The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Bola Osunsanmi, gave the order following the guilty plea of the mother and her appeal that the court should be lenient because one her children was sick.
“You are hereby sentenced to one month community service at the Children Center, Idi Araba, Lagos, where you must perform any duty assigned to you for two hours each day for the next one month.
“Under the child right law, it’s an offense to abandon your child to the government to care for them,’’ Osunsanmi said.
She added that the convict should report at the Ministry of Women and Poverty Alleviation center after serving her sentence.
“You are to report to the WAPA office at Alausa, where you will be trained to be self-sufficient and how you are to appropriately care for all your children. They are your responsibility,” Osunsanmi said.
The chief magistrate also ordered that the children be kept in the government children’s home.
Earlier, at her arraignment on Nov. 24, the prosecutor, Insp. Simon Imhonwa, told the court that the offence was committed on Aug. 10 at about 3:00pm.
“Adeeko abandoned her children aged 13 and 15, and absconded without any care. She exposed them to harm and exploitation.
“She could not reasonably explain the reason for her action,” Imhonwa said.
The prosecutor said the case was reported at Alakara Police Station and subsequently to the Ministry of Youth and Social Development.
He said the offence contravened Section 276 of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2011.