A former Attorney General of Ogun State, Olumide Ayeni, SAN has raised posers over the news report about a Nigerian man identified as Kolawole Oladeji who has been in jail since 1999, after being sentenced to death for being in possession of a stolen generator.
Oladeji claims that the generator was brought to him for repairs.
The Senior Advocate however, remarked that Oladeji’s claim is “utterly false, especially to the extent that ‘other culpable persons who ‘brought the generator to him for repairs were released because they have money or ties’.”
According to Ayeni who was “Attorney General of Ogun State at the material time, 2015 to 2019.
“I was Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Prerogative of Mercy, Ogun State at the time serving with a cross section of very eminent members of communities in Ogun State of impeccable integrity. These persons had no political or other parochial affiliations other than being distinguished members of various communities; all of whom had been appointed into office at least 10 years previous to Senator Amosun assuming office as Governor of Ogun State
“We worked hard to reform the system introducing and publishing in Ogun State Gazettes Guidelines for the exercise of Prerogative of Mercy by the Governor on the advice of our committee. We also published in the Ogun State Gazette details of 67 convicts who enjoyed Prerogative of Mercy of the Governor in the course of my time in office between 2015 and 2019
“I recall faintly that one Sunday Oloyede was a beneficiary of Prerogative of Mercy but procedures and processes of bringing forward applications for consideration were usually from the Convicts/Prisoners, their Legal Practitioners or Counsel, Family Members of Convicts, Prison Authorities or special interest groups among others. What I suspect may have happened in this case is that the Committee probably never received any application from this Prisoner. I intend to put forward a more detailed rebuttal once I return to my office later in the day, but it is uncharitable in the least to cast any aspersions in this guise in order to unduly curry unnecessary public sympathy on a system that worked very well in that period.
“He must have been convicted of a crime in accordance with judicial process and without holding fort for our Judiciary in Ogun State, my experience is that convictions when secured was almost always fair. In Olusegun Adegboye and a host of other cases in my time as Attorney General, the Supreme Court consistently commended the professionalism of Prosecutors and the Criminal Justice System in Ogun State. Dr Ubani, SAN will testify that indeed, upon his application, we acted and exercised procedure to Gazette as part of our reforms clemency granted one of his clients more than 15 years prior to our time in office
“I have to state that many of the points you made are part of existing and reform procedures introduced in Ogun State in the period 2015 to 2019…Although, in this particular case, it is clear that the facts occurred in Ogun State, but this is not to discount the fact that the Abeokuta Correctional Centre holds on remand Convicts from all over Nigeria and other States whose justice system are not robust enough to treat cases like this such that Ogun State is often portrayed and unfairly too, as contributing to Correctional Centre congestion; a point Senator Amosun, on advice, once made at the National Council of State and which I reiterated at the Justice Isaq Bello Presidential Special Committee on Prison Decongestion subsequently tasked with the mandate to so act.”
Rights Advocate and ex-President of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Ayo Obe also weighed on the matter.
“When I chaired the Advisory Committee on the Exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy in Lagos, our practice was to commute death sentences to life imprisonment. Then, the practice was also to recommend the release of those who had spent 20-25 years in prison.
However, some unfortunates were caught because their death sentences were subject to mandatory review up to the Supreme Court, but their case files and records of Appeal were stuck or lost. While they had an appeal pending, they could not apply for Mercy. Yet they could not just withdraw their appeals!
“Hon AGE, it is good to know that reforms were made in Ogun State during your time, and I dare say reforms have not stopped even now. My stint ended in 2003, so I sincerely hope there have been improvements since then, especially as regards the trap of having to appeal, yet the appeal making no progress, and the way some prisoners just seem to get lost in the system.
“When invited to chair the Lagos State Advisory Committee on the Exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy, I said that I would always recommend commuting death sentences, and the Governor was ok with that. At the time the CLO was challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty on behalf of Peter Faji, so the bottom was knocked out of the case when we commuted his sentence. By the end of my stint, we recommended his release as a long-serving convict!
“But at that time, the staff in our correctional centres seemed to have a lot of influence on whose case got brought up to our Committee, or even who would be seen when Chief Judges were inspecting prisons to release those who had been held for longer than any sentence they might have received. It was a marvel to me that despite visiting at least once a year, there would always be some poor soul who had spent many more years in prison than the charged offence would attract! I hope that situation has been improved.”
Kolawole Oladeji was previously detained in a prison facility in Ogun State before being transferred to Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Apapa, Lagos State.
Speaking in an audio message exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, the 64-year-old man said he was arrested on October 30, 1999, after a generator, allegedly stolen by someone else, was brought to his workshop for repair.
He said he was later charged and arraigned with three others for stealing the generator in 2003 following which the court sentenced him to death by hanging.
According to him, his death sentence was pronounced on January 14, 2003.
SaharaReporters learned that Kolawole was sentenced together with Sunday Oloyede, Ogbona Igbojionu and Segun Ajibade.
Kolawole claimed that Segun Ajibade whom he described as the culprit was freed in 2016 by then Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun.
He said: “I am a Yoruba person and I have been in jail since 1999 for a crime that I did not commit. I am a generator repairer and they gave me a generator to repair.
“The person that brought the generator to my workshop for repair has been released by Ibikunle Amosun, former governor of Ogun State because he has people that have money. Since then, I have been left here alone. My mother has died and my wife has also died.
“On that particular day, a customer approached me to repair the generator and after repairing it, Sunday Oloyede came to pick it up and took it to the Ogbona. I didn’t rob anyone and I didn’t know much about the generator; I was just a repairer.
“In 2016, they released the guy who brought the generator (main culprit) to the Amosun government. He has gone home.
“Since then, nobody has come for me, nothing has been done in my case. The main culprit has been released. We are three here: the driver who brought the generator and the person who wanted to sell.
“We have been in jail since 1999. They tried the case and sentenced me to death on January 14, 2003. I have been on death row since that time.”
