Nursing Mother Detained

By Francis Tim Mbom

A nursing mother, Myrmentis Ngobo, was arrested and detained at the weekend in Limbe in connection to some 32 bags of cement that were allegedly discovered in her bathroom.

Ngobo was released from the police cell after having spent a night in detention with her two-month old baby.According to her husband, Georges Fongwa, an army sergeant working in Edea, his wife surprisingly found the bags of cement one morning in their bathroom at Motowo Quarters.

Fongwa said his wife immediately informed one of her neighbours who alerted a police officer living nearby. The said officer is reported to have arrested Ngobo, alongside her baby, Monday, February 9.

The police also reportedly took the bags of cement to their station. Fongwa said when he heard of the detention of his wife, he immediately called the attention of a human rights activist who rushed to the police station to seek the release his wife.

He said the police initially asked that he (Fongwa) pay a huge sum of money as bail and he ended up paying FCFA 5.500 at the Limbe State Counsel's office. He said he also paid FCFA 7,000 at the Limbe Police before his wife and baby could be freed which, according to him, is contrary to the law.

When The Post approached the Limbe Police Commissioner, Eric Eko Ngwesse, on the issue, he acknowledged that a woman had been detained in connection to theft of cement.

But he declined to give further details about the matter as he said it is against the rules of the police to divulge such details to the press. The Post, however, learnt that the police arrested Ngobo on grounds that she failed to explain how the said bags came to be in her residence.

To compound matters, the police is said to have been investigating a recent case of the disappearance of 60 bags of cement.By virtue of the fact that the accused was a nursing mother, many were of the opinion that it was a violation of the law to detain a nursing mother and her baby in a police cell.

Comments

[Danny Boy]

Oh yeah? Would love to have myself a baby and go about divesting others of their hard earned incomes and property!
I am reminded of a British Politician who said black kids learn to steal before they can learn to crawl. True, what was this Mum thinking of getting herself invovled in such unsavoury business?