The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has promised to investigate the alleged wrongful 20-year imprisonment of a Nigerian woman, one Itunu Olajumoke Babalola, in Cote d’Ivoire.
Unknown to her, her return to Cote d’Ivoire would mark the start of a harrowing ordeal in a notorious Ivorian prison, which is still ongoing. Shortly before Itunu was due to travel, her flat was burgled and items worth more than N300,000 were stolen including her TV and gas cooker. There she says, the DPO informed her that the suspect was in fact his nephew. He then offered her a settlement worth roughly N100,000 to drop the case.
On getting to the station, she was charged with theft – the theft of her own items in her own apartment.