Man Convict Of Deserting Pregnant Lady Attempts Fleeing Court, jailed nine years

Mallam Zakaria, a 31-year-old Adamawa resident, will serve nine years in prison for attempting to flee a chief magistrate’s court after being sentenced to two years in prison for leaving a lady he had impregnated.

The offender, a resident of Pariya village in Adamawa State’s Fufore Local Government Area, was previously accused of abandoning one Maryam Usman of Anguwan Yungur, whom he had impregnated.

Usman, on June 16, 2021, lodged a complaint at the Divisional Police Headquarters in Girei that Zakaria impregnated her, adding that after she broke the news to him, he started avoiding her and also stopped taking her calls.

The woman also claimed that the convict conspired with the operator of a pharmacy, Sunday Assoga, to remove the pregnancy after he resurfaced with the chemist, who unsuccessfully administered abortion pills to her, which failed to remove the pregnancy.

The convict, who was arrested by the police and charged to court on June 18, 2021, admitted to committing the crime, while his alleged co-conspirator was left off the hook at the resumed hearing of the case on June 28, 2021.

Magistrate Adamu Abdulrazak, while ruling on July 2, the adjourned date of the case, convicted and sentenced the defendant to two years’ imprisonment with an option of fine of N150,000.

The convict scaled the court fence and was chased by the prosecutor and other security personnel, who caught him with the assistance of pedestrians and bystanders around the government house gate.

Irked by his action, the magistrate recalled his case file and invoked Section 138 of the state penal code law and slammed him with seven years’ jail term for attempted escape, totalling nine years in prison without any option of fine.