·      Have mercy on me, I won’t steal again – Accused
·      Man in court for beating father, police officers
 
A mother of four (4) children, in her late 30 was caught alleg­edly trying to steal a bag of stockfish worth N44,000 at the International Stockfish Market, Km 3, Onitsha-Owerri Road, Obosi by the market vigilante group, Anambra State.
The woman who gave her name as Chinasa Eke­jiuba claimed she hails from Umuduru, Isiala Mbano in Imo State, saying that she was formerly a prostitute but when she got infected with a terrible sexually transmitted disease which cost her a lot, she decided to quit prostitu­tion and take to stealing to enable her fend for herself and her children.
According to an eye wit­ness who would not want to be mentioned, the lady would have succeeded but for a breadfruit seller who raised the alarm. Her words: “We are just lucky today not to lose over N44,000. Thanks to (Nwanyi Ukwa), a woman hawking cooked breadfruit porridge who saw the thief shifting one of the stockfish bags, pretending to use it as a seat and requested a plate of ukwa. Our driver was also interested to buy the ukwa and persisted that the ukwa seller waited for him to fin­ish loading the bags of stock­fish into the bus. The ukwa seller observed the thief as she kept shifting the bag fur­ther down the road and as the thief was about flagging down a tricycle (Keke Na­pepe), the driver was alerted who also invited the market security men that appre­hended her”, she narrated.
Earlier on, Chinasa de­nied the act claiming she came from Owerri town to come and sell sachet water in the market, but she later confessed to the crime and vowed never to indulge in such crime again if only they would spare her life.