FEATURE: The Bizarre Story Of Segun Olowookere’s Death Sentence

• As Police Officer Clears Him, Says He Is Innocent
• NCoS Attempts To Delay His Release After Adeleke’s Order
• Osun State Ministry of Justice Pressured Parents To Indict Son
• Sunday Morakinyo Loses Father, Suffers Mental Illness In Prison

The death sentence meted out to Segun Olowookere, for stealing fowl and eggs in Osun State has generated quite a buzz and caught the attention of Nigerians and beyond.

Olowookere was arrested in November 2010 at Oyan, a rustic Town in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State alongside six other teenagers aged between 12-17. According to the police, they are notoriously known for stealing chickens and eggs in remote areas of the community.

Out of the seven suspects, one was freed at the Police State in Okuku while four suspects were taken to a Juvenile Home at Testing Ground Area, Osogbo, on account of them being underage.

Investigation by OSUN DEFENDER reveals that the four teenagers were released after six months at the Juvenile Home. Meanwhile, the identities of the four suspects have yet to be known.

Olowookere and one Sunday Morakinyo, who was said to be 16-year-old at the time, were convicted and sentenced to death by Retired Justice Jide Falola of the Osun State High Court, sitting in Ikirun.

The duo were arraigned before the court on an eight-count charge bordering on conspiracy, armed robbery and stealing. They were discharged and acquitted on count two, four, five and seven by the court.

However, the judgement was greeted with widespread condemnations from Nigerians who said it outweighed the crime committed. Renowned human rights activist cum Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana said Olowookere and Morakinyo were illegally tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. 

Falana opined that since it was not denied that both suspects were under 18 at the time of their arrest, the Osun State High Court lacked the jurisdictional competence to have tried them.

He said the case ought to have been instituted in the 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.

The case was prosecuted by six state counsels, led by Mrs Biola Adewemimo while Olowookere and Morakinyo were represented by Ayo Omolosho.

Eventually, both Olowookere and Morakinyo were granted amnesty in December 2024 by Governor Ademola Adeleke after fourteen years in prison and ten years on death row.

In an exclusive interview with OSUN DEFENDER shortly after his release, Olowookere said that he is innocent of the offence he was jailed for, saying nothing incriminating was found on him when he was arrested. According to him, he was arrested in his father’s shop, adding that he was never found at the scene of the incident.

READ ALSO: 

• 2 Years After Osun Defender Story, Osun Govt Grants Amnesty To Man Sentenced To Death For Stealing Fowls, Eggs
• Parents Of Man Sentenced To Death For Stealing Fowls, Eggs Beg Adeleke For Amnesty 
• Rewriting Justice: How False Reporting Fails The Public

This medium gathered that his arrest was made on the eve of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Councillors primary election. Olowookere’s father was then a member of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and later became a Councillor representing Ward 15, Oparin, Oyan under the administration of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola. He is also currently the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the same ward as against the rumour that he is a PDP member.

The junior Olowookere, perplexed, stated: “I still find it surprising and shocking till date that I suffered for an offence I did not commit. I have never stolen in my life or engaged in any form of social vice. The police who came for my arrest met me at my father’s shop very close to Oloyan Palace while I was discussing with him on how to proceed further in my education to the higher institution.

“They shot in the air that day. This made everyone scamper for safety. My father approached them to ask for what their mission was and they replied “They came to arrest me”

“Immediately, my father whispered to me, saying I should run away. But I stayed back knowing fully I did not commit any offence. That is how they took me away. On getting to the police station, five out of the boys there said I was part of their gang. They said we have been stealing chicken and eggs together.

“There was one boy among them named Sunday Dare who was taking the police around to arrest people. It was only Sunday Morakinyo who said he did not know me. But the police tortured him with the intention to force him to falsely implicate me, but he stood his ground. Maintaining that he did not know me from anywhere inspite of the torture. They beat the guy to the extent that he was bleeding from his nose, ears and anus. The police hit his head with butt of the gun. That was how he suffered mental illness. I was the one cleaning his blood in the cell.

“After that, one of the boys was freed at the station while six of us were arraigned in court. On the day of our arraignment, the Magistrate ordered that four of the boys should be taken to the Juvenile Home while Sunday and I were remanded at the Ilesa Correctional  Centre. From where we were arraigned at the High Court in Ikirun. After six months, the boys at the Juvenile Home were released.

“Our thought was that we would be released too. But the police changed my age from 17 years to 18. I was even older than Sunday Morakinyo then. At the end of the day, we were convicted to death and spent 14 years in prison before Governor Ademola Adeleke pardoned us.”

Speaking on the statement presented to the court by the police, Olowookere maintained that he never wrote any statement at the police station, saying that none of his family had a 6-bedroom flat as contained in the statement.

“I didn’t make any confessional statement to the police. If you check it very well, it was written that I was living alone in a 6-bedroom apartment, which is totally false. I have never lived alone in my life and you could imagine a 17-year-old living alone.

“I challenge anyone to go to my town to verify. None of my family owns a 6-bedroom apartment. My father and I raised objection before the court but the judge said it was too late that the police could not go back to verify.

“I didn’t even understand the language of the court. I was still asking people what was happening when we were Sentenced to death.”

It was discovered by our reporter that there were lots of conspiracy, miscarriage of Justice and vendetta involved with Segun Olowookere’s case. In the charge sheet, both Olowookere and Morakinyo were said to have “armed themselves with local gun and cutlasses to rob one Balogun Taye, a police officer in the town where they stole the sum of N5000, one Nokia BMW China Phone  and Siemen phone valued N20,100 and some fowl valued N30,000. 

But the police officer who claimed to have arrested Olowookere from his father’s shop denied Segun’s involvement in the crime while speaking with OSUN DEFENDER at the Oloyan’s palace last Thursday. He said it was the boys taken to the Juvenile home who actually stole his fowl.

“Segun Olowookere was not among the boys who stole from my compound. I arrested them in my house but Segun was not there. It was during the course of investigation that the boys mentioned his name. I went to arrest him in his father’s shop and transferred them to Okuku police station.

“I was one of the witnesses in court. I told the court that he was not involved. I don’t know what then transpired at the Okuku Station. I work here in Oyan police station. I even said since the first day that Segun was not among those that stole my fowl,” Balogun said.

The duo were also said to have robbed one Alhaja Humoani Oyewo, the PW2 in the case and other people in the community. But Alhaja, while giving evidence before the court, said she could not identify any of those who came to her house, saying they were unable to gain access into her house.

It was also evident that some of the counts in the charge sheet were false as observed by OSUN DEFENDER in a copy of the judgement made available to this medium.

Justice Falola, while delivering the judgement said “As for count 5, there is no evidence that the two accused were present at the scene where PW1 arrested the other accused. There is also no evidence to show that the two accused knew about the invasion of house of PW1. What I find is that a different cell of gang went after the property of PW1.”

Justice Falola added, “Even then PW2, the victim of the robbery in count 6 stated that she was threatened with cutlasses only. It is also on record that PW2 was only attacked by the door, the accused did not enter or take anything from PW2 who was rescued by her neighbour.”

Also, OSUN DEFENDER reliably gathered that Olowookere’s parents faced pressure from some people at the Osun Ministry of Justice to testify that their only son actually committed the offence he was convicted for. This came after Governor Adeleke announced that he would pardon him and 52 other inmates in the state.

“The parents while they were invited to the Ministry of Justice, faced a lot of pressure from some quarters. They were told to admit that Segun committed the offence he was convicted for while promising them they are ready to help,” the source disclosed.

The medium also learnt that the Nigeria Correctional Service in Abuja tried to delay the release of Olowookere from custody at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison last Monday after Adeleke’s order, saying the Lagos office has yet to send them his documents.

OSUN DEFENDER learnt that he was the only one affected among the 53 inmates released. The inmates cut across Ilesa Correctional Centre, Osun State, Ibara Correctional Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State and Kirikiri Maximum Prison, Lagos State. Findings revealed that the matter took the intervention of the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo before it was resolved.

Speaking on the mental illness of Morakinyo, his uncle, Mr Anthony Olayide, told OSUN DEFENDER that the torture by the police led to his present condition.

Olayide said: “Sunday’s condition was not like this before he was arrested in 2010. He started behaving abnormally while in remand at Ilesa Prison. Whenever I take clothes to him he will tear them. We tried at that time maybe we could secure his release before now.

“I was so happy when I heard that Governor Adeleke had pardoned him and Olowookere. We lost his father during the period he was in prison. We have been planning on how to take him to a psychiatric home for treatment”

 He, however, sought intervention of the state government and well-meaning Nigerians on Morakinyo’s mental sickness.