A chief magistrate court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, has sentenced two lovers, Victor Olawusi, 18, and Mary Idris, 20, to community service for two weeks for faking a kidnap.
The chief magistrate, Adefunke Anoma, sentencing Olawusi and Idris on Monday, directed the Ekiti State judiciary’s chief security officer to supervise them during the service.
Anoma also recommended counseling exercise for two weeks for the two convicts, to be supervised by the court’s Registrar.
The police prosecutor, Monica Ikebulo, told the court that on August 9, 2020, Idris connived with Olawusi to hide her whereabouts from her parents, lied to them that she had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom from them.
Idris, in her defence, told the court that she went to her boyfriend’s residence at Akure, Ondo State, “for fun”, but because she lacked the transportation money to return to Ado Ekiti, she sent an alarming message to her parents that she had been kidnapped and was, in connivance with Olawusi, expecting them to send a ransom.
Magistrate Anoma condemned Idris’ action, wondering how a girl of her age “writing an international examination would leave the comfort of her home and go to stay at a guest house for four days.”
She said, “This, again, is, sadly, a sign of high moral decadence in the fabric of our society.”
