A teenager, identified as Beauty Obi and her two-week-old baby have been released from the Warri Custodial Centre, popularly known as Okere Prison, after they were granted bail by the Chief Judge of Delta State, Honourable Justice Tessy Diai, on compassionate grounds.
The Chief Judge, on Monday, extended compassion to Beauty, who delivered her baby through a caesarean section, following an appeal from the deputy controller of the prison, Mr. Edo Joseph Lucky.
He had passionately narrated the pathetic situation of the teenage mother who was admitted to the Custodial Centre while she was pregnant, alongside her boyfriend.
According to the deputy controller, when the teenager was due for delivery, she was taken to the Warri Central Hospital, where she gave birth through caesarean section, but the newborn was placed in an incubator for one week before being reunited with the mother in custody.
Lucky further disclosed that for the one week the child spent in the incubator, the prison authority was spending N1,000 per hour, which, he said, informed his appeal to the Chief Judge for her to be granted bail, to enable her to stay with her parents for proper care
The Chief Judge, who later gave Beauty N20,000, granted her bail in the sum of N250,000 with one surety in like sum, while the surety, who must be resident within the jurisdiction of the trial court, should depose to an affidavit of means and provide his national identity card NIN number.
The 18-year-old mother, who hails from Obingwa in Imo State, while thanking the Chief Judge for the financial assistance, recounted the circumstances that led to being remanded at the Custodial Centre.
According to her, she was arrested by the police with her boyfriend when he was about to sell a stolen phone.
The teenage mother, whose mother is an indigene Kwale in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, claimed that she was unaware of how her boyfriend got the phone and maintained her innocence of the armed robbery charge brought against her by the police.
