Nigerians were stunned on Tuesday as social media was awash with reports of an only child, Segun Olowookere, who was sentenced to death in Osun State for stealing fowl.
There were different versions of what truly transpired and why the convict was given what many considered a harsh punishment for the offence.
Our correspondent, who has been following the matter since Olowookere was put into detention in 2010, noted that the complainant in the matter was a family member of the convict.
He was arrested when he was barely 17 years old when the crime was committed.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday PUNCH, Olowookere explained the actual circumstances of his sentencing.
The facts
Olowookere was arrested alongside another convict, Sunday Morakinyo, in Oyan, Odo-Otin Local Government of Osun State, in November 2010.
They were accused of robbing a policeman attached to the Divisional Police Headquarters, Okuku, Tope Balogun, of two fowls and eggs.
On January 30, 2013, the police arraigned them before Justice Jide Falola of the state High Court in Ikirun for robbery and stealing.
Olowookere and Morakinyo were said to have conspired in November 2010 to rob one Oguntade Faramade of his fowls and eggs worth N20,000.
They were also accused of robbing Balogun Taye of his two mobile phones and attempting to rob another person, Alhaja Umani Oyewo, in her house.
According to the charge sheet, the convicts were armed with cutlasses and a Dane gun to rob one Elizabeth Dare of a gallon of vegetable oil.
Both Olowookere and Morakinyo pleaded not guilty to the charges.
However, Olowooke was said to have made a confessional statement to the police in which he admitted to committing the crime.
The state counsel, Biola Adewemimo, called six witnesses, including Alhaja Oyewo, Elizabeth Dare, Oguntade Faramade and three policemen, who testified against the convicts.
Olowookere’s counsel, Ayo Omolesho, argued that he was innocent as he was not arrested at the scene of the crime, maintaining that the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
However, Justice Falola convicted and sentenced Olowookere and Morakinyo to death (for conspiracy to commit armed robbery); life imprisonment (for robbery), and three years imprisonment (for stealing) on December 17, 2014.
By the time of the judgement, Olowookere was 21 years old.
However, Falola recommended that the state governor could decide to commute the death sentence to 10 years imprisonment, considering the age of the convicts.
Olowookere speaks
After several days of efforts, Sunday PUNCH spoke to Olowookere, who is now a death row inmate in one of the custodial centres in the country.
According to him, the police would have released him had his parents raised the N30,000 demanded for his bail on time.
Recounting his journey to death row, the inmate said he surrendered himself to the police when they came looking for him in April 2010.
He said, “I was at my father’s shop in Oyan after returning from school. My dad and I were discussing my university admission and suddenly, we heard gunshots, and everybody ran away except my dad and a few others.
“My father was taken to a police van where there were some children. I was peeping out and could hear and see what was going on. The police asked my dad where I was and he asked them what my offence was. When they couldn’t give him a satisfactory response, my father shouted at the top of his voice that I should run away because the police wanted to arrest me.
“But I was wondering what my offence was. So, I came out and went to meet them. I was detained at the police post in Oyan, and was taken to Okuku Divisional Police Headquarters the following day. I met the children who were in the police van when they came for me sitting on the ground and eating rice.”
The robbery charge
He explained that when he got to the station, the DPO asked the children if he was Segun Olowookere and they said yes.
According to him, the DPO said one of the children arrested mentioned his name as their gang leader.
He said, “The DPO told me that one of the children confessed to stealing two broilers and some crates of eggs. I met the broilers and the eggs at the station. The children were eight in number. He told me the children said I was their gang leader, which I denied.
“The children he was talking about were around 12 and 13 years old, while I was 17 then. I told him I knew the children but I didn’t have anything to do with them other than greeting them in the community.”
Olowookere explained that he was tortured after his denial, noting that another suspect, Morakinyo, whom he met at the station with the children, also suffered the same fate.
“I met Sunday Morakinyo at the station and he told the police that he didn’t know me, nor had anything to do with me. I don’t even know where he was arrested. All the children were released but Morakinyo and I were not.
“We were seriously tortured from the first day I got to the Okuku Police Station under the supervision of the DPO. The children who allegedly committed the crime were not beaten. He repeatedly asked me to admit and confess to a crime I didn’t commit.
“After some days, we were given cutlasses to cut the grass at the police station premises despite having injuries on every part of our body as a result of the torture.”
N30,000 bail
According to Olowookere, the police wanted to release him on bail on the condition that his father would pay N30,000, which he did not have.
“My father could only raise N20,000 out of the N30,000 they demanded. The police rejected it and insisted on the N30,000.
“My dad left the station to look for the money. But before he returned the following day, we had been moved to the SARS office in Osogbo. The cutlasses that were given to me and Morakinyo to cut the grass were presented to SARS as exhibits and they were told we were armed robbers.
“After 17 days in the SARS cell, we were taken to a magistrate’s court and charged with robbery, and from there to the High Court, where we were sentenced to death,” he added.
According to him, the poultry farm where the broilers were reportedly stolen from belonged to his uncle.
“We are from the same Ajerotutu compound in Oyan. He was summoned to a family meeting where he said I was not among those who stole the fowls, but my name was mentioned by the children who were arrested.
“He told the family that he would discontinue the case. But he later came to court to testify against me,” the inmate narrated.
Confessional statement
Olowookere denied making any statement to the police.
He dismissed the report that he was living in a six-bedroom apartment when the crime was committed, stating that he never lived alone as he was living with his parents when he was arrested by the police.
“I never wrote any statement to the police. My parents never had a flat, not to mention a six-bedroom flat. I lived with my parents until I was arrested,” he stated.
Asked why his lawyer didn’t object to the statement during the trial, Olowookere said, “I didn’t know anything, but I am sure I didn’t write any statement.”
Mental illness
The convict claimed that the second convict, Morakinyo, suffered mental illness while in detention.
Olowookere said the convict bled from different parts of his body after he was tortured by the police.
“He is now a mad person. He is at Ibara prison. He developed mental issues when we were tortured at the police station in Okuku and by the officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad. I am just lucky, and I believe God’s grace is over me.
“Morakinyo was bleeding from the anus, ears, nose, and on the head. The police did not treat him despite that. I cleaned the cell every day because his blood stained the floor. He was bleeding for the entire six days we spent inside the Okuku police cell before we were transferred to the SARS cell in Osogbo.
“We spent 17 days with SARS and Morakinyo bled every day. Some of the SARS officers noticed that he was not mentally normal again but others thought he was pretending, and from there, he developed full mental issues.
“When we were remanded at Ilesa Custodial Centre, the warders tried to manage his mental health but they didn’t have the capacity. His condition then worsened. As I am talking to you, he doesn’t recognise anybody again. His mother has stopped checking up on him.”
The inmate said his dream is to become a doctor and be useful to society.
According to him, he is already working with medical workers at his custodial centre.
He said he resorted to working with them when he couldn’t afford to fund a medical course at the National Open University.
The convict stated, “I first enrolled in Yewa College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, after my sentence. It is my dream to study medicine, but it is not available at a college of education. I was later transferred to a maximum prison in 2016. But due to financial constraints, I couldn’t study my dream course.
“However, I was encouraged to train under the medical practitioners in the prison. So, I applied and I was accepted into the medical line in 2017. Since then, I have been working with the nurses, pharmacists, and doctors inside the prison.
“I believe I will be free one day, and when I regain my freedom, I will definitely go for medicine. I pray to God to set me free because I am innocent. I don’t know anything about the crime I am convicted for. I pray to God to give me the opportunity to prove my innocence to the world, and be useful to society. I am not a criminal; I have never stolen anything in my life, not to talk of robbing somebody.”
Governor Adeleke intervenes
The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, according to a post on his X account, directed the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, to initiate processes to grant Olowookere pardon.
Adeleke, on Tuesday, wrote, “I have received the report of a case of a young man reportedly sentenced to death by hanging in Osun State for stealing a fowl.
“Consequently, I have directed the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Osun State, to commence a full investigation into the matter and initiate processes to grant a prerogative of mercy to the young man.
“Osun is a land of justice and equity and must ensure fairness and protection of the sanctity of lives. I assure members of the public that this matter is receiving my direct attention with every sense of urgency attached to our response to the matter.”
Former attorney urges caution
However, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Oyo State, Mutalubi Adebayo, cautioned Adeleke on the matter, just as he warned against actions that could endanger judges and expose them to threats from criminals, potentially leading to loss of life.
He said, “The claim that the prisoner was convicted and sentenced to death for stealing a fowl is an outright falsehood and cheap blackmail, aimed at securing his release through underhanded means.
“The convict was a member of a notorious gang of armed robbers that terrorised residents of Odo-Otin LGA in Osun State before his arrest. He was fairly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging by the Osun State High Court. There has been no appeal against the judgment in over 14 years.”
Falana faults sentence
Commenting on the matter, a human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, faulted the death sentence passed on Olowookere, describing it as illegal.
Falana, in a statement on Friday, said the high court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case, knowing that Olowookere committed the offence as a minor.
He said, “We submit that the trial, conviction, and death sentence passed on Olowokere Segun were illegal, null and void in every material particular. Since it was not denied that Olowokere was 17 years old at the time of his trial, the Osun State High Court lacked the jurisdictional competence to have tried him.
“The case ought to have been instituted in the Osun State Family Court which is exclusively empowered to exercise jurisdiction in any criminal proceeding involving or relating to any penalty, forfeiture, punishment, or other liability in respect of an offence committed by a child, against a child or against the interest of a child.”
Falana added that even if a child was found guilty of armed robbery, he or she shall not be ordered to be imprisoned or subjected to corporal punishment or death penalty.
“Since the trial, conviction and death sentence passed on Olowokere Segun cannot be justified in law, Governor Ademola Adeleke has rightly granted him full pardon in exercise of the prerogative of mercy conferred on him by section 214 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he submitted.
NJC retires trial judge
Justice Falola, who convicted and sentenced Olowookere to death, is known for handling controversial and intense criminal, political, religious, and other litigations.
Because of his courage, he was nicknamed Iroko.
However, the judge was forced to go on compulsory retirement on December 7, 2023, by the National Judicial Council after being found guilty of granting a Garnishee Order Absolute against Polaris Bank for the sum of N283,174,000.00 in a questionable manner.
Falola was said to have travelled to Lagos to visit the bank’s counsel and prostrated himself for him in his chambers on the issue of the Garnishee Proceedings, an action described as unprofessional.
Lingering appeal
The High Court judgement was, however, appealed in 2011 as the case is still pending at the Court of Appeal, Akure, Ondo State.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that financial constraints were a major factor the case is still dragging at the appellate court.
According to reliable sources, two different lawyers handled the case before the service of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was sought.
But the SAN is yet to appear before the court.