The young man at the centre of the Osun chicken theft death sentence scandal, Segun Olowookere, has shared his harrowing experience of arrest, detention, frame-up, and conviction.

Olowookere, arrested in 2010 at the age of 17 that the complainant in his case was a family member.

The incident that altered his life occurred in November 2010 when he was detained alongside another suspect, Sunday Morakinyo, in Oyan, Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State.

The pair were accused of robbing a policeman attached to the Divisional Police Headquarters in Okuku, Tope Balogun, of two fowls and eggs.

Additional allegations stated that they conspired to rob Oguntade Faramade of fowls and eggs worth N20,000, stole two mobile phones from Balogun Taye, and attempted to rob Alhaja Umani Oyewo.

The charge sheet also detailed an alleged robbery involving Elizabeth Dare, who was reportedly robbed of a gallon of vegetable oil by individuals armed with cutlasses and a Dane gun.

Both Olowookere and Morakinyo pleaded not guilty to the charges when arraigned on January 30, 2013, before Justice Jide Falola at the Osun State High Court in Ikirun.

However, Olowookere was said to have made a confessional statement to the police, admitting to the crime.

Recounting his journey to death row, Olowookere explained how the police arrested him after they came looking for him at his father’s shop.

“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,” Olowookere said in an interview with PUNCH.

He continued, “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.”

At the station, Olowookere said he was accused of being the gang leader of a group of children, aged 12 and 13, who allegedly stole the fowls and eggs.

Despite his denial, he claimed he was tortured to force a confession.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Olowookere revealed that the police had initially agreed to release him on bail if his father paid N30,000, but his father could only raise N20,000, which the police rejected.

“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,” he explained.

After 17 days in SARS custody, Olowookere and Morakinyo were arraigned before a magistrate’s court on robbery charges and later transferred to the High Court, where they were sentenced to death.

Reflecting on his ordeal, Olowookere maintained his innocence and decried the injustices that led to his conviction.

Prosecutors told a Ventura County court in California how a moon-faced assistant principal charged with molesting girls as young as six carried out his sick schemes with ‘planning, sophistication or professionalism.’

The 42-year-old David Braff, appeared in court on Friday after he was accused of 17 counts of lewd acts on children – the oldest of whom was just 10.

Braff is alleged to have committed the crimes on eight different girls over a four-year period while he was working as a counsellor at McKevett Elementary in Santa Paula, some 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

At the time of his arrest, Braff was employed as an assistant principal at Ingenium Charter Middle School 40 miles east in Winnetka.

Appearing in blue prison scrubs before a judge on Friday, the suspected child molester said nothing during his brief scheduled arraignment in Ventura County Superior Court.

At the request of defense attorney Nicholas Gray, Judge Paul Kawai agreed to continue Braff’s arraignment to January 24 next year and remanded him back to Ventura County Jail where he’s been held since his November 22 arrest.

Braff, from Thousand Oaks, California, was held after authorities launched an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against him in October.

‘The defendant is alleged to have molested multiple elementary school children over a number of years, shattering the trust placed in him by parents, educators, and the public,’ said Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.

The school principal and counsellor is charged with 17 counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14, alleged to have taken place over a four-year period while he was working at McKevett Elementary

Prosecutors say the alleged offences took place in a school office between 2015 and 2019 and the victims were aged from six to 10.

The alleged felonies involve ‘vulnerable’ victims, according to prosecutors.

Shocked by the charges against him, Ingenium Charter issued a lengthy statement saying school staff were ‘devastated.’

‘Upon learning of the allegations from McKevett Elementary in Ventura County, Ingenium took immediate actions to ensure the safety of its students,’ the statement went on.

‘We take the safety and well-being of our students as our highest priority, and we are committed to ensuring a safe and supportive environment for all members of our community.

‘We are working closely with the appropriate authorities and will continue to provide any assistance necessary to support the investigation.

The charter school also encouraged others who knew potential victims to cooperate with law enforcement.

The Santa Paula United School District made a similar statement and said it was ‘working in close collaboration with law enforcement’ in the investigation of the crimes Braff allegedly committed against young children in an office at McKevett Elementary.

Braff was employed as an assistant principal at Ingenium Charter Middle School at the time of his arrest

Prosecutors say the alleged offenses took place in a school office between 2015 and 2019 and the victims, all girls, were aged six to 10.

Cops are still looking into Braff’s work history but he’s believed to have held jobs at other schools in California and he may also have volunteered at various youth organizations.

‘Given the defendant’s history of re-occurring access to children, this investigation and prosecution remains ongoing,’ added DA Nasarenko who is urging members of the public to come forward if they have any information about Braff.

Daily Mirror

The Presidency has discountenanced the report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) on Wednesday, 18 December, which revealed the number of Nigerians lost to insecurity.

Refuting the survey report, Nigeria’s presidency said the country has witnessed a “drastic decline” in cases of kidnapping, armed banditry, and cattle rustling. 

The NBS had said approximately 614,937 Nigerians were murdered in one year based on surveys conducted between May 2023 to April 2024. 

The report disclosed that 2,235,954 Nigerians were also kidnapped nationally while N2.2tr was paid as ransom, an average amount of N2.7m per incident 

However, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communications,  Daniel Bwala in a statement said, that the CESPS was aimed at “Ensuring data transparency.”

Bwala who said the present administration was committed to running an all-inclusive data-driven socio-economic agenda, added that the CESPS is a novel concept that seeks to ensure that information rolled out to the public are data-driven and not on conjectures or mere assumptions. 

He said, “Facts speak for itself. The country has witnessed a drastic decline in cases of incessant kidnapping in the South, armed banditry, and cattle rustling in the North, especially North West. The activities of the proscribed group from the South East, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its affiliate – the Eastern Security Network, otherwise known as ‘Unknown Gunmen’ have largely reduced. 

“More importantly, the recent arrest of the Finland-based agent provocateur, Simon Ekpa who had hitherto instigated endless onslaughts on people from the South East. 

“On the Northern flank, Nigerians have seen fewer school attacks in the outgoing year, contrary to what was obtainable in recent years. This, no doubt, further lends credence to the fight against crime by the current administration.” 

Meanwhile, the website of the National Bureau of Statistics became inaccessible a day after the release of the crime and statistics report. 

A statement yesterday on the X handle of the bureau urged its users to disregard any report that emanated from there. 

The statement read, “The NBS wishes to inform the public that its website has been compromised. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality. We advise the public to disregard any messages or reports published on the website until further notice. Thank you for your understanding.”

Some of the logic here is troubling.

Apart from the slippery slope apparently created by the libertine new criminal statute that erases the sensible old distinction between an infant (under 7-year-olds), a child (7-u14), and a young person (14-17-year-olds), the reasoning behind this seeming beatification of someone in his 18th year and who, by the tested evidence, a high court judge found to have committed acts amounting to armed robbery, is a bit perplexing.

Firstly, how does it follow in logic for a technical misjudgment in procedural jurisdiction to embark on the trial at the High Court, lead to the conclusion that full pardon has been rightly granted? What becomes of the society and the particular victims of the identified armed robbery?

Does not logic or good reason rather lead us to extension of time to appeal the trial, nullification of the conviction and sentence, plus, simultaneously, a consequential order for commensurate proceedings at the statutorily permitted Family Court or other constitutionally guaranteed tribunal to protect society?

Secondly, wouldn’t it be outrageous libertarian postmodernism to otherwise suggest that no accounting can issue for criminal activities against a person with the physique and malevolence to commit even capital injuries to others once such violent malefactor can demonstrate a biological age below 18?

Even in the US from which we sometimes copy these monstrously ridiculous new age laws, there are provisions for judicial assessment of particular offences and peculiarities of the relevant accused person for the purpose of imposing an order for such an otherwise young person to be tried as an adult!

Thirdly, if the new legislation does indeed forbid trial and conviction of a factual murderer or armed robber merely on account of being a few months less than 18 years of age, I would respectfully submit that depending on the facts of particular cases, it would be open to a discerning judge to strike that provision down as contrary to the spirit and possibly the letters too of our constitution.

In the proper factual analysis of given cases, such a judge might properly nuance the conclusion to the effect that the provision goes against the fundamental rights of other citizens to life and or to equality.

Additionally, also, the court could properly hold on the law, that such indiscriminate benefit to this class of criminal accused persons (without regard to their individual circumstances), is certainly not “reasonably justifiable in a democratic society”!

Read Also: Falana says Olowokere Segun was illegally tried, convicted and sentenced to death

A Nigerian man, Abdullahi Danladi Ismael has said that it’s the role of a good wife to respect her husband no matter how he behaves, even if he sleeps with the housemaids.

However, a marriage therapist, Shamseddin Giwa disagreed with him, saying that a man who behaves wrongly shouldn’t expect respect from his wife. 

“As a society, we have a lot of work to do. For so long, the boy child has been neglected on the assumption he will be fine. Many of those are now men who have it all wrong,” Mr Giwa added. 

Read Also: Nigerian man says “our society is set up to encourage young men to justify, engage in infidelity with audacity and impunity”