Akwa Ibom CJ Frees Tricyclist Detained 4 years Over Affairs With Policewoman’s Daughter

After four years of being arrested and dumped at the Uyo Medium Custodial Centre on the orders of a policewoman for having the audacity to engage her daughter in love affairs, Ephraim Udo, 29, a tricycle operator, has regained his freedom.

Udo, a native of Ikono local government area of Akwa Ibom State, was pardoned by the state chief judge, Justice Ekaete Obot, at the weekend during her jail delivery exercise and inspection of prison formations across the state.

Fighting back tears, the inmate, who has been in prison custody for four years without trial, told the CJ that he got two children from the daughter of the Policewoman, who had vowed that “a keke man cannot marry my daughter.”

Udo recalled that he and his estranged lover had been in love for years, but that her mother did not approve of the relationship, and eventually ended their planned marriage with his four years wrongful incarceration.

However, the sad story of Ephraim, LEADERSHIP gathered, caught the attention of Justice Obot, who ordered the immediate and unconditional release of the victim, who was full of praises to God, blaming his poor situation and lack of committed family members to follow through his case.

Udo, who commended the gesture of the CJ, for coming to his aid, described her as “a compassionate mother in the temple of justice, setting example of the judiciary as the hope of the oppressed and the common people, especially when the doctrines and principles of the rule of law are not allowed to be trampled upon by the rich and the influential in the society.”

With his release, Udo, with his apparent bleak future, hoped to pick the broken pieces of his life before charting a new course of rebuilding his shattered dreams of facing the future without his estranged fiancée and two children.

Udo, was one of the 45 wrongly incarcerated inmates including two foreigners of Niger Republic origin unconditionally granted freedom as the CJ concluded her weeklong tour of prison facilities in Ikot Abasi, Ikot Ekpene, Eket and Uyo formations at the weekend.