Ibinabo Fiberesima has opened up on her troubles following the recent court ruling which sentenced her to five years in prison for manslaughter
On Friday, March 11, Justice Deborah Oluwayemi of the Lagos division of the Court of Appeal sentenced the actress to five years in prison for manslaughter.
Justice Oluwayemi refused a plea from Nnaemeka Amaechina (Ibinabo Fiberesima’s lawyer) for the court to set aside the sentence and act on a prior N100, 000 fine verdict of the Magistrate Court on the grounds that the appeal lacked merit.
Following the judgment, the actress reportedly burst into tears.
Her current problems stem from a road accident 10 years ago which led to the death of one Giwa Suraj along the Lekki-Epe expressway, Lagos.
The deceased was a medical doctor and the breadwinner of his family.
According to Vanguard, when the Nollywood star was first released in 2009, she stated that she “been drained and to some extents humiliated”.
Speaking further with Vanguard, she revealed that the she had learned not to trust people anymore as she now trusts in God.
She said: “Since the incident happened, I have learnt how not to trust anybody any more. I put my trust now in the Lord. And this is better explained in the new song I recorded. The music captures my story.
“Emotionally, I have been drained and to some extent humiliated, even in public…I wasn’t happy that I was involved in that accident. I have said it over and over again that I’m deeply sorry that it ever happened. I don’t know how else to atone for the accident. I started begging my victim’s family from the very day the accident happened. My family attended the funeral rites and service of songs and I even attended the 40 days prayer when I was strong enough to move about. I met with the mother and the wife of the deceased. There’s virtually nothing I didn’t do to plead with the family of the deceased to let me off the hook. I’m still pleading with them as I speak with you right now.”
In a recent development, the actress reveals to Vanguard that she has accepted her fate even as she continues to put the family of the deceased in prayers.
Several A-lists in Nollywood have also been said to visit her at the Kirikiri prison as they show support for her during this trying time.
The movie practitioners who visited include Fred Amata, Yakubu Mohammed, Zeb Ejiro, Segun Arinze, Felix Duker, Zik Zulu Okafor, Ralph Nwadike and Mike Iliam.
According to Vanguard, it was a gloomy day as the actress was seated in a small waiting room looking desolate as her colleagues took turn to get across to her and show solidarity.
Speaking on the state of things between her and the family of late Dr. Giwa Suraj’s family, the actress stated that she has no relationship with them.
She said she used to visit the mother of the deceased until the family warned her to stop visiting.
She said: “I don’t have a relationship with the family. They banned me from coming to see them. I used to visit the mother, but they warned me to stop coming to their house. So, I can only pray for them and that’s what I did always.”
When asked if she ever made efforts to reach them through other means, she said:
“If I had their GSM lines, I would have sent them messages. But like I said earlier, I was banned from visiting them. They said I should not dare get close to them.”
The ex-beauty queen also said upon being granted bail in 2009, part of the condition was that she would appeal the five-year sentence in court.
She said: “When I was granted bail, the condition for granting the bail was that I should challenge the jail term slammed on me by the High Court, and urge the court to restore the decision of the Magistrate Court which fined N100,000 and I paid. And the appeal was only heard in January, that’s all. The case was between Lagos State government and I.”
But things never went as she envisaged as her appeal was dismissed by the court which led to her second journey to Kirikiri on a five-year sentence.
On her position as president of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria she revealed that while she was away for treatments abroad, the guild’s account was freezed which made it impossible for activities to run within the organization.
She dismissed claims that she abandoned the office as the guild’s president as a result of the High Court ruling which sacked her.
She held that she still controls the guild’s affairs as its incumbent president.
She said: “The welfare of my members comes before any other thing. We must continue to push on our health insurance scheme for our members. I have my own health challenges too. I went for a test and they found a growth- a lump in my breasts which I had to remove. So, if we don’t do these tests continuously anything can happen. We usually take our lives for granted. You must continue to go for routine medical examinations. That’s what AGN is all about. We are here to ensure that our members are properly taken care of. We can’t get our money in the bank to pay for our health insurance because they froze the account. I opened the account before the case started.
“We are back on track and everything is beginning to happen again. From next week, we would start touring all the states with a free computerized eye screening exercise for all members. We are getting back to our rhythm after all the distractions.
“Our members are the ones that have suffered. I think it is time we helped them and pay attention to them. We have lost a lot of our members to death recently. It is very painful because we have not been able to pay for insurance scheme following the crisis in the guild.”
On the allegations and criticisms she has faced since the incident and the court cases, she explained pains saying she did not steal from anyone neither is she a criminal.
She added that she was only involved in an accident for which she has been internally sorry ever since.
She also revealed that she contemplated suicide at some point. She said:
“Every time they want to throw things at me, they would bring it up. I didn’t steal anybody’s money snd I am not a criminal. I was involved in an accident and I have internally remained sorry that it happened. They said I am going to jail again. I almost died the first time I was sent to jail in 2009. I almost committed suicide. But thank God that He brought me out of that depression.”
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