Couple Jailed 3 Years For Confining Niece In Fridge For Eight Months In Sokoto

Emmanuel Bassey and his wife, Esther, were sentenced to three years in prison for holding their 12-year-old niece for eight months in an underused refrigerator.

Joy Emmanuel, the victim, was rescued from her guardians’ home in the Sokoto Cinema area of the Sokoto North Local Government Area by the State Police Command.

The pair claimed she was locked up due to her unstable mental state, but the authorities later disproved this claim.

Chief Magistrate Shu’aibu Ahmad handed down his decision on Wednesday, fining the couple N25,000 or six months in prison for criminal conspiracy.

He also fined them N50,000 for improper imprisonment and ordered them to serve 12 months in prison if they did not comply.

He stated that the pair were found guilty of child maltreatment and were sentenced to 12 months in prison and an N100,000 fine, with a three-year prison sentence if they did not comply.

They will serve the terms simultaneously, according to Ahmad. He did, however, award their two children, Goodness Emmanuel and Happiness Emmanuel, bail in the sum of N500,000 apiece, as well as one surety in the same amount.

ASP Sanusi Abubakar, a spokesman for the Sokoto Police Command, said the pair kept the girl in an unused fridge at their compound and starved her for eight months.

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“When our men broke the door of the cage, the girl was too frail to walk because she was emaciated. We met her in a very horrible situation, urinating and excreting inside the cage. The girl was taken to the Specialist hospital for treatment,”

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