Cleric Laments Incarceration of 8-month-old Baby in Prison

 

A female clergy has lamented the retention of an 8-month-old baby in prison.

The clergy, Nonnie Robertson, President of the Nigerian Women in Clergy visited Suleja prison and set some prisoners free in the spirit of Easter.

Robertson who is also the Overseer of the New Wine Ministries World Wide said that some captives were held in different prisons across the country, some of whom might have committed petty crimes, and were thrown into the prisons after failing to meet their bail conditions or pay the fine set for their release. She said her effort was  in line with the dominant message of the season which urges men of goodwill to try to ‘set the captives free.’

She lamented the incarceration of an eight-month-old baby whom she said was in prison because her mother had committed a crime which ordinarily wouldn’t have taken her to prison. Nonnie further lamented that she was moved to tears seeing the condition this woman and her child were subjected to. She lamented the imprisonment of other children, saying they were in prison, not because of their own crime but a crime their parents committed. She asked why children should be incarcerated as well as their parents.

”There is an eight-month-old baby in this prison. I asked myself why? What was the crime? The mother is incarcerated! And you know what it means for a child to grow up in prison environment where there is no good food, no clothing, no baby food, and no good medical care. Is a child who grows up in that kind of environment not condemned for life?”, the Overseer said.

“I was really shocked when I saw the eight month-old-baby. The woman lives on dry food, that is, garri that outsiders provide for them. They don’t give them food. They depend on what people take to them. That is what they share among them and they drink garri even in the morning with little or no sugar. You can just imagine! There are many children living in this condition in Nigerian prisons but people would not know. There are issues. I weep for this country”.

She also lamented the condition of some of the inmates who she called 'forgotten victims' of which some are there serving jail terms with the options of N5, 000 to N15, 000 fines but they can’t afford it and nobody to help.