Mum-of-5, Ibinabo Fiberesima, Sentenced to 5 Years In Prison
Mum-of, five, Ibinabo Fiberesima has been sentenced to 5-years in prison for accidentally killing a family man.
11 years-ago, 2005 to be precise, former beauty queen and the current president of the Actor’s Guild of Nigeria, Ibionabo Fiberesima, killed Giwa Suraj, said to be a staff of a Lagos State hospital, in a fatal car accident.
Ibionabo was charged and taken to a Magistrate court in Lagos where she was given the option of paying a fine of N100,000 for the offence instead of a prison term of five years. Of course, Ibionabo took the fine option and paid the said amount.
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The case was far from over because it was taken to the Lagos High Court which upheld the five year jail term without the option of paying a fine. The high court reached a decision delivered by Justice Jamilu Yammama Tukur. He said that the Magistrate Court lacked discretion to have granted Ibinabo an option of fine after been convicted. However, it was noted that as reason to avoid being convicted, the Magistrate Court’s poor judgement, must have been based on a plea by Ibionabo’s defence that she is a working mother.
Unaccepting of the High Court’s judgement, through her lawyer, the ex-beauty queen and the mother of five, filed an appeal prompting the court to overturn the five-year sentence.
However, on Friday, the Lagos Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal by Ibinabo and upheld the the five-year sentence without the option of a fine. According to NAN, Ibinabo was sentenced to five years imprisonment by Justice Deborah Oluwayemi of a Lagos High Court.
She held: “When a term of imprisonment is mandatory for an offence, the court cannot and should not give an option of fine.”
She insisted that the fine did not serve the purpose of justice in the case and subsequently ordered that the N100,000 be returned to the former beauty queen.
Saturday Vanguard reported that the embattled actress has been in sober mood since the judgement was delivered. Her Personal Assistant, who spoke to their reporter said, “My boss has been feeling unwell since the judgement was delivered. We are afraid it doesn’t affect her health.”
Nawa after all dese yrs?
I culd remember Hw it happened bt it’s been a long tym nah well sorry for her
Nawa o yawa don gas
Nigeria justice system smh. How can 100k be fine for killing someone? Mtscheeeeeeewwww. Although 5years is much.
so sad to hear of this but i think she did not really show any atom of remorse to the bereaved family
I feel sorry for her n family. It’s sad really
It’s a pity. She shld have gone to the family and settle out of Court
It’s an accident now. The family of d deceased should have forgiven her. Unless if she didn’t show any remorse like Angel Nonye said. So sad
Nigeria n their short cuts, imagine asking for a fine for a human life. Dat’s y u stole 2.2b, u bail ursef with 1.5b while ur sureties will pay d remaining balance, mcheeeeww
Hmmmm this is something that would have happen since only that they wanted to use money to cover it. Justice should take it full cause
After all these yr Nigeria judiciary have finally woken up from their slumber.
I guess she wrongly assumed the judgment will be in her favour because if she had pulled resources and settled that family alongside showing care and remorse,it wouldn’t have gotten to this extent
Oh my God
aiya.feel for her sha
Feel so bad for her but if she has shown some concern to the bereaved family who knows maybe they might have drop the case, God knows best
Serves her right.
For how long
Nawa for Nigeria
Great thanks to the Nigerian justice system. The information we have is that she was drunk at the time of the road crash. As such, it was premeditated murder not accident. Besides, this seeming controversy, it is unfortunate that while the case was going on, instead of her exhibiting some sense of remorse, she was all over the place attending one social function or the other, visiting America etc and exhibiting such on the social media. I can imagine how the family of the man she killed would have felt while struggling with resources on how to survive because of the loss of a bread winner. Let us remove unnecessary sentiments from this issue, Ibinabo has not conducted herself well after the crash, perhaps thinking that the likely influenced judgement at the magistrate court will be upheld at the upper courts. Very big stars in America or Europe are not spared when they run into similar offences, they get imprisoned and it serves well for the society that none is above the law. Ibinabo was not sentenced to death or life time. Five years imprisonment is fair because in Nigeria’s constitution, it is a minimum of seven years that ought to stay in the gulag. Her imprisonment is a victory for the FRSC, road victims and all well meaning cum innocent road users in Nigeria. Her stay in prison will reform her and send the right message to the Nigerian public on how to use the road in a safe manner. When she comes out of prison, she will be a better road user and may work for road safety improvement as a worthy ambassador in her status a celebrity. For now, let her conduct herself properly in prison, write articles on road safety and offer assistance to the family of the deceased, perhaps in less than three years, NGOs walking for road safety in Nigeria may seek mercy for her release. As a star, she can help change the face of road safety in Nigeria. On the converse, as a Christian, I believe that her misconduct is highly forgivable but we cannot exclude the deceased family and the FRSC from this conversation. The right way to go is for her supporters to seek the involvement of a credible NGO to stand in the gap for her in a very humble manner and obtain pledges from Ibinabo and company that the direct dependants of the killed man will not suffer unnecessary hardship. It is really not appropriate for her colleagues to be all over the social media asking for mercy which may even be misconstrued as impunity because most of them are also guilty of similar misconduct. Indeed, road safety NGOs can plead with the court that Ibinabo’s conviction is commuted to community service on road safety for ten years but where she defaults, she goes back to jail. The truth is that she has a big role to play for road safety that could help save thousands of lives and improve our driving culture. After all, there will not be any real gain for the deceased family if Ibinabo is thrust into prison because Nigeria does not have any welfare package for road crash victims’ families. It is a deep psychological and financial wound that can be partially healed through proper articulation than the noisy manner it is being handled. Let Ibinabo seek an NGO that can help make positive contributions on her matter, build a bridge with the dead man’s family. assign her the task of championing, Don’t Drink and drive initiative, then stand ready to guarantee her future conduct on the roads. Ibinabo deserves a second chance, please!
Angela Nwokolo
Women go for Safety Initiative
nwokoloangela@yahoo.com
Maybe she didn’t show remorse to the family of the late man.they wud have settled it out of court
Eiyaa!.. its a pity.
So bad
She didn’t show any remorse to the family and it was also a case of drunk driving.
I feel sorry for her but she did commit the crime ….and denied those kids of the their dad. After prison she will still have a family. The family of the deceased have no father
The Governor of Lagos state should use pre-rogative of mercy to release her.