Man jailed by friend for unpaid debt lost wife and daughter while in prison

Tragedy struck Eric Kwesi Marfo, a former inmate of the Nsawam prison when he lost his child while serving an 18 month jail sentence for unpaid debt.

The joy of fatherhood of ex-Nsawam prison inmate, Eric Kwesi Marfo, was short lived when his child passed away after being sentenced to serve 18 months in prisons for unsettled debts.

Eric, who sat with Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng on Crime Check TV, revealed his wife also died two weeks after their child’s death.

The heart-breaking events turned soul-wrenching because he didn’t even have the opportunity to bid either of them a proper farewell.

Eric’s daughter fell off a swing in school and broke her neck but he didn’t have money to foot the hospital bill at the time so he turned to his close friend for help.

The friend earlier had helped Eric secure a job as a driver at Access Bank was kind enough to lend him GH¢2,000, the amount he needed to foot his daughter’s hospital bill.

Eris’s friend also also lend him extra GH¢2,600 to pay his landlord, who was demanding house rent in the mist of the unpleasant events.

They agreed that Eric will pay back the money after a month but just days after the money was given, his friend asked for the money back.

“He asked for the money after four days but I told him I couldn’t get it for him at the time… his fiancée’s family asked him to come for a proper introduction or else they would marry her off to another man who had returned from abroad so he needed the money to do that,” Eric recounted.

Eric, whose friend kept demanding for the money got a call from the Kotobabi police station to come over.

Upon arrival, he met the uncle of his friend, who is a police officer.

“His uncle told me to pay back the money since he needed it for something but I told him I couldn’t pay then…I stayed in cells that evening and was taken to court the following day,” he stated.

Even though the judge and lawyers in court agreed that case wasn’t one meant for court, Eric was still sentenced to a GH¢1,800 fine or in default had to spend 18 months in prison.

Three days after he was sent to the Nsawam prison, Eric who hadn’t informed his family of his predicament, called home to talk to his wife to find out about how their daughter was doing but was told the sad news of the child’s death.

“My wife also died about two weeks after our daughter’s death.”

Eric revealed that his friend, who was responsible for him serving a jail term visited when he was at Nsawam but he refused to see him.

Fortunately, Eric would gain his freedom and a new beginning, Crime Check Foundation, paid off the fine and Eric has been released from the James Camp prison, where he was serving the final months of his sentence.

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