Name:Ebiriukwu Deborah C
School :Abia State University.
Level:400
Being
a part of this project has been a wonderful experience and my
encounters has been so educative and encouraging as a law student. In
sharing this experience,I will make reference to one client of mine
known as Godknows Nse who hails from Akwaibom state charged with child
trafficking. The various stages in this matter has taught me how not to
just do something for myself but that I can use that opportunity to do
for someone else.
At first was the interviewing and counseling
stage which took place in Afara prison umuahia. This session was
smoothly progressive until I met this client. He was reluctant to meet
with us and when he came he was all gloomy. Initially I thought he was
trying to put the emotion of pity and innocence but this I disregarded
in order not to appear weak and unprofessional. When he started his
story, I tried to decipher the relationship between his expression and
the offense he was charged with. Ordinarily the story would have been so
touching and an ordinary person would have said 'Chai,its not fair'. I
held down such such emotions and appeared strong as I do not know the
truth yet. His story was that on December 2013,he impregnated a girl who
gave birth to a child for him. They quarreled and separated and later
the boy was left in his custody. He said he suffered and did many hard
labour just to make sure the boy was alive and healthy. Later the child
died out of sickness and he buried him in the bush. The girl came and
asked him about the child and called the uncle who is a police. They
arrested him and took him to central police station. He was arraigned
once in the magistrate court and thus has been awaiting trial. He
however has no legal representation and has been detained since then. I
have been able to go to court in search of his charge sheet but have not
succeeded. I was asked to go back to prison and conduct another
interview with the client in order to get the vital information and get
the charge number from the prison officials for easy identification when
I go back to magistrate court.I believe this is an offense the Absu law
clinic can handed in as much as it has been classified as an offense
outside our scope.
However my findings is that there are some
cases which has been classified as a capital offense which it's fact
states otherwise. I pray that the scope of matters handled by the law
clinic should be extended in order to accommodate such matters.
Thanks.
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