In December 2019, the police at Iyanaoworo in Lagos arrested Chidiebere and Samuel Nnana, and charged them with armed robbery. The duo would later spend two years and two months in custody.

Chidiebere and Samuel are brothers who moved to Lagos from Aba in Abia State. When they arrived in Lagos, they worked as commercial drivers until their arrest.

On December 11, 2019, they began working from Iyana-Oworo. But before they got to the bus stop, they met a harsh fate.

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The HeadFort Foundation said that operatives of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) had caught two robbers and beat them. The OPC then asked the thief to point out their members. One thief pointed at the two brothers.

“Without hearing from them, they were all taken to the Iyana-Oworo police station,” HeadFort said. “The police officers at Iyana-Oworo rejected them and asked the OPC officers to take them to Panti. They spent close to two months at Panti before they were charged to court for armed robbery and sent to Ikoyi Prison.”

Another inmate who knew their story and their lack of legal representation referred their case to HeadFort, who then got in touch with the inmates’ relatives and afforded them free legal representation.

HeadFort said one of its lawyers investigated and found that the court had referred the matter for legal advice. At the time, the defendants were already being tried at the Ikeja High Court.

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HeadFort said their lawyer did not understand how the high court would try them. The lawyer followed up and ensured the legal advice was processed and sent to the court.  She did this while awaiting advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the Ebute-Meta Magistrate Court.

“The DPP’s advice was that the two brothers should be released, as they had no case to answer. They only took them along with the other defendants who had a case to answer,” HeadFort said.

“Our lawyer made sure the court knew about the mistakes. They released them immediately, but they had already spent two years and two months in prison.”

Chidiebere and Samuel finally regained freedom on March 2, 2022.