After two years of legal struggle and six months in Kirikiri Prison, 26-year-old Vee from Cross River State, formerly employed as an OPay representative, has been discharged by the court.
According to a tweet by the Headfort Foundation, a prison reform organisation, on Sunday, the long-standing case stemmed from a loan issue involving two POS operators in 2022.
Vee, who used to issue point-of-sale machines and process customer loans, faced charges of conspiracy and stealing after two PoS operators borrowed N1 million and shared it equally in January 2022. While one operator paid off their loan, the other defaulted after paying N100,000 of their N500,000 and absconded.
When OPay learned of this, they sacked Vee and arrested her since she issued the loan to the PoS operator. This was in May 2022. According to Headfort, the Alausa police arrested Vee and kept her in their custody, where she spent a week.
“Vee pleaded with the company to allow her to continue her job with them so the money could be deducted from her salary, but the company refused and insisted on charging her in court,” Headfort tweeted on Sunday.
“Vee was charged to Ogba Magistrate Court on conspiracy and stealing, which she pleaded not guilty to. The court granted her bail and remanded her in Kirikiri female prison, but she could not perfect her bail until after six months in custody.”
Headfort said that OPay added interest to the unpaid loan of N400,000.00 and claimed the sum of N1,017,000 on the charge.
When Vee got out of prison in January 2023, she approached the Headfort Foundation in June 2023 for legal aid because she could no longer pay the lawyer she hired.
“The matter was referred to ADR, but the company never showed up with their representative to sign the terms of the settlement. The matter suffered several adjournments at the instance of the prosecution,” said Headfort.
On February 26, as always, there was no witness in court, Headfort said. Their lawyer then applied that the matter be struck out for want of diligent prosecution, and the court granted the application and discharged Vee after two years of legal tussle.
FIJ.NG
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