Dressed in a white T-shirt, and smiling gently as he waits for the click of the camera, Benjamin Akinyemi is the very picture of humility – much like the kind of people who are said to be incapable of hurting a fly.
But only months earlier, Benjamin was a vicious young man who spent his free time fomenting trouble along the streets of Akure, the Ondo State Capital. He often went as far as beating up innocent passers-by.
However things came to a head on 16 June 2015 when Akinyemi decided to attack a vehicle along Odi-Olowo Street. It turned out that the lady behind the steering was a Chief Magistrate at the Ondo State Judiciary, Mrs Yetunde Ajanaku.
“I was driving along Odi-Olowo on this fateful evening when the young man hit my car with an object,” Ajanaku narrated. “Initially I thought it was a pothole but when the banging became consistent I had to stop the car and come down only to find out that the boy did it intentionally. When I cautioned him, he threatened to beat me while the residents told me to ignore him but he kept on hitting my car with the object.”
This continued a little longer until Akinyemi was, right there, apprehended by residents and passers-by. Ajanaku promptly reported the matter to the police. The charge read against him said: “…that you Benjamin Akinyemi on the 16th of Juneat about 06:30 pm at Odi-Olowo street Akure in the Akure Magisterial District did unlawfully assault Chief Magistrate Ajanaku Yetunde and thereby committed an offence contrary to and publishable under section 351 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37 Vol 1, of the Laws of Ondo State of Nigeria 2006.”
Akinyemi’s story was soon to become the subject of various media reports, most of them insisting that the magistrate was beaten and wounded by the 24-year-old.
“A 24-year-old saw-miller has been jailed in Akure, Ondo State, for purportedly assaulting and injuring a chief magistrate,” reported an online newspaper.
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Destined by God
In the middle of all the excitement generated by his arrest, however, the magistrate made a very strange decision:
“I travelled the following day (after the arrest),” she said. “…it was reported in the media that I was beaten. When the boy was arraigned in court, the presiding Judge ordered him to be remanded in the prison. I came back to withdraw the case against him and decided to rehabilitate him because I believed God had destined that I would meet him through this way.
“If I send him to jail as my colleagues suggested, he would spend one year in prison and will be useless to himself and to society. I decided to take him to my church. Since then, he has been regular in the church and well behaved. I want him to be useful to himself, his family, and to society. Since the rehabilitation began, he has been behaving well. He has turned over a new leaf. It is also a way of decongesting the prison and courts. This will not be first time I am taking up responsibility to rehabilitate poor people or to sponsor indigent students. It’s only the circumstances surrounding my meeting with him that is different. I am happy that Benjamin is now a changed person.”
She explained further: “This has been part of my calling and I have been doing this without making any noise about it; I have sponsored a number of people’s education. I am always happy to put a smile on the faces of these children, and bringing them to know God gives me much more joy”
The Owo-born Judge also promised to sponsor Akinyemi’s education through university or any level he might desire. She said: “I am happy and proud to see this young man changing each day. He is now refined and above all has the fear of God and to me, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
Street-boy no more
The period since June 10 has been a most dramatic one in the life of Akinyemi. An abandoned child, he has lived with his octogenarian grandmother for many years. He was not, at first, aware it was a magistrate he had assaulted, and when it dawned on him, he did not believe he would escape a jail sentence or even a graver punishment.
“I certainly believed that I will rot in the prison when I realised that I had assaulted a Judge,” Akinyemi told Saturday Tribune. “I had no option than to pretend that I was not normal when the police arrested me, because I knew where my action would lead me to.
“My life has completely changed with a bright future. I am now a new person because the incident had served as an eye opener for me and I’m seriously preparing for my GCE towards the brighter future I dreamt of as a kid. I want to appreciate Mummy Ajanaku for what she has done in my life and for choosing to rehabilitate me instead of pushing for my punishment. I should be in Olokuta Prison now but thank God for her caring heart and I will forever be grateful for this wonderful opportunity. Because she believed in me and changed my life, I want to dedicate my life to God, and I will strive to come out with a good grade at the end of my studies at the university,” he said.
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Akinyemi who disclosed that the few days he spent at Olokuta Prison had taught him that there was more to life than being “a street urchin,” said it was his plan to study Psychology at the university after his O’ levels
Nigerian Tribune
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