Ogona Anita
In a heart-wrenching video obtained by SaharaReporters, a frail 90-year-old woman has issued a desperate plea to Nigeria’s former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, begging for the release of her daughter, Deborah Erema, who has been unlawfully detained for over five years.
The elderly woman, whose health is visibly failing, broke down in tears as she lamented her current state of hunger, neglect, and isolation.
“Nobody go give me food, nah only her dey give me. I don’t have anybody. I just go beg beg. I am now a begger. See me as I dey now,” she said in the emotional footage.
“Please release my daughter, make she go find food for me. Nah she dey give me food. I don beg tire. I don tire. Make una leave my pikin for me. If I die now, who go bury me. Nah only her I get.”
Her daughter, Deborah Erema, has been in detention alongside 14 others since 2019, following accusations of jewelry theft made by Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Deborah Erema and the other accused, mostly domestic staff who worked for the Jonathans, were arrested in connection to the alleged theft of jewelry belonging to the former First Lady.
Despite spending more than five years behind bars, they have not been convicted in any court of law, SaharaReporters has learned.
The list of detainees includes Williams Alami, Vincent Olabiyi, Ebuka Cosmos, John Dashe, Tamunokuro Abaku, Sahabi Lima, Emmanuel Aginwa, Precious Kingsley, Tamunosiki Achese, Salomi Wareboka, Sunday Reginald, Boma Oba, Vivian Golden, and Emeka Benson.
These individuals have remained cut off from their families, careers, and lives—all under the shadow of unproven allegations orchestrated by someone who once held sway at the highest levels of Nigerian power.
The unjust detention has already cost Deborah dearly. Her daughter, who had been single handedly caring for her aged grandmother died recently after a prolonged illness.
“She had so much to carry. She was a single mother with two or three kids. The burden of taking care of the children, her sick grandmother, and worrying about her mother in prison was just too much,” a source familiar with the situation told SaharaReporters.
“She eventually fell ill and died. It was a slow, painful death, worsened by the hopelessness of it all.”
