Legends Stories of Impact

I, Ehimen Osahon, hails from Edo State. I have an NCE in Computer education/Accounting, and BSc in Education management. Prior to my arrest on November 7th, 2016, I lost my job as a banker with United Bank for Africa Plc and as a married man with a wife and two kids I have to get a boxer (modern J5) to start a food business. I buy and sell and transport plantain, pawpaw and pineapple to different places such as Abuja, Kaduna, Onitsha, Port-Harcourt etc. for survival hoping and praying for a better white-collar job. On this fateful day, I was approached by one Mr. Emma to help him convey some items to Kaduna and transport cost was agreed upon. I didn’t know in detail what and what I was to carry, but on getting to the location where the items were, I discovered it was cannabis sativa (Marijuana also called Igbo). I gave him a very high price in other to discourage him from using me to carry the items but to my greatest surprise he agreed to the price and I carried the items. On my way to Abaji I was apprehended by officers of the NDLEA and thus arrested, after three months in their custody, I was arraigned by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja. I spent 2 years and eight months awaiting trial and he (Justice Okon Abang) struck out my case on the instance of the prosecutor lacking evidence to prosecute me. However, I was re-arraigned on the same case before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu who later sentenced me to seven years imprisonment (but to spend 4 years and 8 months). While in custody, not to waste my effective life, I picked up a master degree programme in Education administration and Planning with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), January, 2018. It was a tuition free programme, but other expenses were borne solely by the inmates. Therefore, the research project writing is a big bottleneck, since I don’t have the funds to finance it. Then, Legend Golden Care Foundation (LGCF) came to my rescue. Firstly, LGCF organised a Bible quiz competition for inmates at the Kuje Correctional Centre. The first prize for the competition was N20,000.00 and I won it and spent the proceeds on my project work, The Organisation, impressed at how an inmate could be running a master degree programme with the abysmal conditions in the correctional facility promised to continue from there. Since then, all other expenses I incurred to finish the programme came from LGCF and they even promised to give me a job once I am out of the walls of the Correctional Facility. On July 8, 2021 I was released, LGCF invited me to their office and gave me an employment letter, but first asked me to go back to Benin City to see my family and come back to resume once I am ready, they even gave me accommodation. There is this societal stigmatisation on ex-inmate, personally where to go, where to start from, how do I fit into the society and avoid recidivism, where all over me. But my integration into the society became very easy thanks to LGCF. Today, I have a place to stay in Abuja, I have a job to do in Abuja, and my family has reunited with me here in Abuja, all thanks to God Almighty and Legend Golden Care Foundation. I’ll forever be grateful to LGCF.