Teenage Mother Sentenced For Phone Theft, Released From Delta Prison With Her 2Weeks-old Baby

An 18-year-old mother of a two weeks old baby, Miss Beauty Obi, was released from Warri Custodial Centre, popularly known as Okere Prison, on Monday, June 26, 2023.The teenage inmate was granted bail by the Chief Judge of Delta State, Hon. Justice Tessy Diai, on compassionate grounds.

Justice Dial had extended compassion to Obi, who delivered her baby through caesarean section, following an appeal from the deputy controller of the Warri Custodial Centre, Mr. Edo Joseph Lucky. Lucky had narrated the pathetic situation of the teenage mother and her boyfriend, who was admitted to the Custodial Centre while she was pregnant

According to the deputy controller of the Custodial Centre, when Beauty was due for delivery, she was taken to the Warri Central Hospital, where she gave birth through caesarean section, but the little child was placed in an incubator for one week before it was 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 to grant her bail to enable her to go to her parents for proper care.

The Chief Judge, who passionately assisted Beauty Obi with the sum of 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.

According to the teenage mother, who hails from Obingwa in Imo State, the police arrested her and the boyfriend at a location where he was about to sell a stolen phone.

The teenage mother, whose mother is from Kwale in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, claimed that she was aware that her boyfriend stole the phone.