18th May, 2011
A distraught mother, Mrs. Ijeoma Egbebu, whose son was arrested by the police at Igando on the outskirts of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, for breaking into a house and attempting to steal, has told the police that she knew that her son, Odinakachi, is a thief.
She asked the police to do to him whatever they please because she was tired of him.
She also told the police in her statement that she has tried everything including prayers to change him, but the more she tried the more he got worse.
The embittered widow said she has tried her best to make him live a better in life by procuring visa and sending him abroad.
She said he could not stay there and returned to join his bad friends back in Nigeria.
The mother of two stated that Odinakachi was his only son and she wanted to give him her best through education.
She said that she sent him to a good school even though she was a widow, but nothing came out of it.
She added that immediately he entered secondary school, he joined bad friends that led him into crime and he eventually dropped out of school.
She said she was always afraid and did not know what will happen next because of Odinakachi’s behaviour.
She told the police that he has been in and out of prison custody and it was not long he was released from Kirikiri prison, Apapa, Lagos.
Odinakachi himself told P.M.NEWS that he has been jailed on three occasions but he did not explain why he commits crimes.
Odinakachi was arrested by the police where he and his gang allegedly attempted to break into a house at Abiodun Street, Igando, to steal.
He was caught by the neighbours who saw them while they entered through the ceiling. Other members of his gang escaped.
It was when he was taken to the station and his mother was invited, that she opened up on his son and asked the police that he should face the law for the offence he committed.
Odinakachi was later charged to Ejigbo magistrate’s court where he is facing charges of breaking and entering.
—Cyriacus Izuekwe