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| A file photo combination of a court gavel and Ameerah Sufyan |
A Magistrate Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja on Wednesday sentenced Ameerah Sufyan to psychiatric care after she was convicted of raising a false kidnap alarm.
Earlier in the month, Ameerah in a tweet claimed that she was abducted with 16 others, prompting the police to launch an investigation into the matter.
But following the investigation, the security agency found her claim untrue, noting that she had been receiving treatment for mental issues in a Lagos hospital and had raised the alarm from the facility.
Ameerah was thus arraigned on a one-count charge of misleading the police which is an offence under Section 140 of the Penal Code. She pleaded guilty when the charge was read to her on Wednesday. After this, the prosecutor, James Idachaba, tendered a medical report which showed that the defendant was suffering from mental issues.
Idachaba called on the Magistrate court to convict the defendant after her guilty plea but give her a non-custodial sentence in line with the provisions of Section 44 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).
He also called on the court to keep her under the watch of the Police Counselling Unit so that her mental state will be regularly monitored.
The defence lawyer, Chinyere Moneme, concurred with the prosecutor after which Magistrate Chukwuemeka Nweke convicted the defendant and ordered that she be released conditionally to a female Police Probation Officer, Hauwa Ibrahim.
