Last week, a sister sent me a message that her fiance was incarcerated by the court, therefore she needs financial assistance.

I called her later in the day to hear the details of the litigation. She said the matter started two years ago when an Omo Onile (land grabber) was killed by a bricklayer working on guy’s (fiancé) property.

She said they’ve never met during that that. she continued by saying her fiancé works in Oyo state while the property is being built somewhere in Lagos. And that her fiancé wasn’t in Lagos when the bricklayer killed the Omo Onile and eloped.

The diseased family reported the case to police and the CID pulled up the property owner’s information from Lagos state ministry of land and housing. That was how they invited her fiancé to the police station and the case started since then. The site engineer (contractor) was asked to produce the bricklayer, but couldn’t.

I said her fiancé shouldn’t be punished for a crime he wasn’t party to, but she said he was charged for missing a court summon and failure to provide the eloped bricklayer.

My confusion now is when she messaged me yesterday that her fiancé was sentenced to four years imprisonment or an option of N4m fine which they’ve been able to raise N3.9m. She’s now begging me for assistance.

Lawyers in the house, please how credible could this case or narration be? Can a court jail or fine someone up to N4m for failing to attend a hearing date on a litigation like this?