Ogona Anita
The founder of D’Marriage Centre, Bishop Godspower Osaro and Barinaa Saneh, were charged at Nchia Magistrate Court in Eleme Local Government Area on Thursday for stealing school desks, chairs, panels, fittings and other office equipment valued at N25 million from Community Primary, Alesa, Eleme, Rivers State.
According to Emmanuel Obe who first shared the story on Facebook said the defendants pleaded not guilty to the two counts criminal charges and were admitted to bail by the magistrate, Mrs. Kevin Chinaka, who said they must meet the bail conditions including a bail bond of N9.5 million each.
The bishop and his accomplice had broken into the school last month and carted away newly supply desks provided for the school by the immediate past Administrator of Eleme Local Government, Dr. Obo Dibiah.
Dr. Dibiah had promised to supply the desks after she visited the school and found the pupils sitting on bare floor while receiving their lessons. The story was that the desks provided by Rivers State Government under the Amaechi administration were stolen by unknown persons.
She could not make the desks available while she was still in office, but kept her promise within two weeks of leaving office.
It didn’t take quite two weeks after the brand new set of desks were delivered to the school when thieves broke into the school and carted away the seats.
The headmistress of the school alerted the President of Alesa Youth Council, Mr. Frank Obele, who mobilised his members and the Alode youth council to search for the missing seats.
They traced the seats to the church of Bishop Osaro, where the seats had been broken up and the iron stands removed and stacked aside. They also found other office equipment in the church premises.
During interrogation, Bishop Osaro confessed that Barinaa was his accomplice. Both of them were arrested and handed over to the police at Eleme Divisional headquarters.
On Thursday, the police charged them to court. A mild drama occurred after the court when the police prosecutor said the bishop would not be taken to prison because he had met the bail condition. The community and school people at the court alleged that contrary to the bail conditions given by the magistrate that sureties must provide evidence of the bail bond and must be a senior government officials, the bail bond was signed by the father of the bishop without evidence of meeting the bail bond.
The bishop and the other accused persons were later on driven away in a white bus purportedly taking them to prison custody.
Source,: Emmanuel Obe FB
