A report by The Nation has shown that an elderly woman collapsed Thursday afternoon on the first floor of the Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.
She was looking for a lawyer to whom she allegedly paid money to facilitate the settlement of her son’s criminal matter.
According to The Nation, the unidentified woman told her rescuers that she regularly gave an undisclosed sum to the lawyer, who was defending her son in a criminal matter.
It was part payment for a settlement agreement that her son, who is on bail, entered with the complainant so that the charge against him can be dispensed with.
But she arrived in court yesterday and, after asking around the four-storey multi-courtroom edifice, could not find the lawyer.
She, again, climbed the staircase from the ground floor but slumped on the first floor a few metres from the Prosecutors’ Office.
The staircase is right in front of the out-of-service twin elevators.
Chief Security Officer (CSO) Lateef Bello alerted his colleagues and they tried to revive her. But she began shivering, passing urine and could neither speak nor get on her feet.
After some minutes, Commissioner for Oaths O. A. Mustapha was informed and she went to the nearby High Court on Igbosere Road, to get a Toyota Hiace bus.
The bus, with the inscription ‘Lagos State Judiciary Probate Registry’ and registration number: EL822LSD, conveyed the unconscious woman to the Lagos Island General Hospital.
A lawyer, who declined to be named, said she saw the woman being carried into the bus.
“She was dressed in a native attire and looked elderly,” the source said, adding, “I didn’t really know what was happening at that time, but I saw the security officers carrying her into a bus.”
An eyewitness, who spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity, said the woman was revived at the hospital.
“I learnt she gave money to a lawyer but he disappeared with it. She was running around looking for the lawyer before she collapsed.
“We quickly informed the Commissioner for Oaths who sourced for a vehicle and we took her to hospital where she was revived.”
Another source said the woman’s son was arraigned last year before Magistrate for allegedly obtaining money from the complainant under the pretence of helping him to clear his goods from a Lagos port.
He was said to have spent the money without clearing the goods.
“He was on bail already and, in accordance with the terms of the settlement, had been paying a certain amount at regular intervals. His mother had been assisting him in paying the money.”
Post a Comment