They are like every other Nigerian but different. They all share something in common. They were clammed to jail and condemned to death at very young ages, and declared innocent after years of humiliating torture in the hands of those that are paid to protect them. They would have become history if only government had found the perfect executioner. Their stories as retold by JULIANA FRANCIS, will sure melt the hardest of heartsOlatunji Olaide, a native of Abeokuta in Ogun State, is aging rapidly at 56. He looks frail and half blind with his left eye completely impaired beyond restoration. That was his gift from Kirikiri Maximum Prison, which was his abode for 24 years.
But, he was lucky to have left the prison walls alive; many that found themselves in that circumstance did not live to tell their sordid stories.
Olaide was arrested on May 29, 1988, on allegations of stealing and murder. His trial was brisk after long spell in detention.
He was eventually convicted and condemned to death by a Lagos High Court in 1995. Even when he pleaded not guilty, no one cared to listen to his plea of innocent.
He waited for death until what appeared to be a miracle came his way through the intervention of Pro-bono lawyers, spearheaded by the Legal Defence And Assistance Project (LEDAP), which was at the time coordinated by a lawyer simple identified as Vitalis. Olaide, who was 32 at the time his travail started, would have been history today.
He was also lucky that the law on death penalty did not meet him in prisons; perhaps, he would still have been waiting, or executed by now.
Olaide, who narrated his sorry story to this reporter reluctantly after months of tracking said, “I was a farmer. I worked with my father because he was a renowned farmer too. I was 32 years-old when I got involved in this mess in 1988.
We used to buy cows, which we supplied to hotels and people from Ojodu Berger, an outskirt of Lagos State. My Dad had a slaughter house.
On that fateful day, he sent me to purchase rams and cows, the way we used to do because Eid El-Kabir (Ile ya) festival was approaching.
That trip marked a terrible turning-point in my life. “We normally travel to Niger State to do the purchase. My Dad had a customer there. He gave me N325, 000 with which to go to Niger to get some stock.
I got there late and couldn’t make any purchase the same day. While relaxing with my host, some elderly men brought an unpleasant message from the Chief of the village that all strangers in the land should be summoned to his palace.
Though, the man that harboured me protested by insisting that I had just arrived, the palace messengers were not in for any of such excuses.
The only mission, according to them, was to take me to the Chief,” Olaide recounted. Olaide, on getting to the Chief’s palace, met other visitors that the messengers had arrested. Soon after, Police interrupted with their arrived and ordered them to the station.
Even though, his host was reluctant to release him to the Police, the Chief of the land lured him to go with the law enforcement agents instead of “unnecessary” argument with them.
The next day, they were all taking to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
“My host was so kind as to follow me to Ilorin where we spent over a week at the Police Station. By that time I had already lost all my contacts.
My Daddy was expecting me back because we were not used to spending more than a week whenever we go for such trip. And since I was yet to return, my parents believed that I was not through with my transactions.
But, a week later, I called a police man to assist me find out why we were still being held at their station. The revelation was confounding.
The man said we were waiting for the Commissioner of Police. When the Commissioner eventually arrived, we were taken to him.
He started his own interrogation and later branded us suspects after which he ordered his men to keep me and some others aside,” Olaide said.
Introduction of SARS changed case
Yet, the humiliation continued.
The Commissioner asked his men to detain the “suspects” again. The next day, Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) stormed Ilorin from Lagos State and took them to Adeniji Adele Police Station.
According to Olaide, “we were paraded on arrival on allegation that we killed someone in Lagos. I argued that I was in Niger for a transaction, but that fell on deaf ears.
When we were transferred to Lagos, my Niger State host followed me. Indeed, that turned out to be his first outing outside his neigbourhood.”
However, Olaide and other suspects’ sojourn to Lagos kick-started their ordeal that snowballed into another nightmarish interrogation by their new tormentor, identified simply as Inspector Joe.
Though, he recalled that Inspector Joe was a nice man. “He told the other policemen after his investigation that “these ones” were not the killers they were looking for.
He made it known to them that we were arrested wrongly,” he further recalled. Incidentally, Joe’s findings did not bring respite to the suspects.
Instead, instruction allegedly emanated from above that visitors coming to see the suspects must be properly monitored and scrutinised. By this time, Olaide had spent more than two weeks in Adeniji Adele police custody.
He later begged Inspector Joe to help him locate his parents because he knew they would be worried sick by then. The Inspector obliged him, collected the home address and traced his parents to Ojodu Berger area of Lagos State.
He told Olaide’s parents that their son and others had been arrested for murder. Instead of the news bringing relief to Olaide’s parents, it infuriated his aged father, who warned the policeman never to repeat such “nonsense” about his son. But, Joe was not hurt by such emotional outburst.
It was expected. He continued by telling the old man that one certain man from Niger State, had followed his son’s case to Lagos.
It was then that “my father revealed to the policeman that the supposed Good Samaritan was his friend, my host in Niger who I had gone to meet for business dealings.”
Olaide’s father wanted to go immediately with the policeman, but the Inspector refused. He explained that he would get into trouble if anyone found out that he contacted Olaide’s family.
They agreed to move separately. The next day, Olaide’s parents visited the station where the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) interrogated them and pretended never to have met them before.
He was later allowed to see his troubled son. After explaining all that happened, his father thanked his friend and asked him to return to his home state. The senior Olaide, thereafter, requested to see the Commissioner of police.
“Olaide said, “my father asked for the money he gave to me to purchase the goods.
I told him that the Police had collected all that I had on me. He later brought his lawyer to take me on bail but they refused, insisting that they were still investigating.
“My father tried all he could to bring me out to no avail.
The police used the opportunity of his desperation to extort money from him on several occasions.
At a point, our lawyer demanded that the case should be charged to court.
By then, I had already spent seven months in the cell.
Some days later, some police officers came from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and requested for me and the others.
Those at the station then told my father that there was nothing they could do anymore since the matter had been taken over by Abuja.
I was tortured to the point of death at Adeniji Adele; the scar is all over me.
“I was tortured in a dark room by four policemen with different instruments like rod, cutlass, hot electric pressing iron and one thing they called hanging pot. Along the line, they would be the one to tell you what to say.
But, I disagreed with them. I never accepted what they told me to say. Inspector Joe queried his colleagues on why they had to torture me without his consent since he was the IPO of the case. He warned that if anything should happen to me, he would report such to the authorities concerned.
Some of the bruises had disappeared but this very one, (he pointed to the protruding bone), shooting out from the skin of his shoulder blade, is still here.
I was taken to the Monitoring Unit, at Milverton where they interrogated me the same way we were interrogated at Adeniji Adele,” Olaide, who fought back tears at this point, said.
Suspects taken to Third Mainland Bridge for execution
According to Olaide, the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), in charge of Milverton Station, called to ask why he refused to agree with what the policemen had been telling him.
God. I reminded him that I never committed the offence they accused me of. At that point he ordered his men to take me away.
His boys took me to Third Mainland Bridge, which was where the Police normally carry out their killings of suspects.
Normally, once they get to the bridge, they would ask everybody to come down from the van. They would now order the suspects to start walking in front.
That way, they would shoot and kill the suspects. Almost the same thing happened in our case as well. When we got to the bridge that day, they stopped and ordered us to start walking in front. Suddenly a call came, miraculously. The caller asked where they were.
They told him and he ordered them to return immediately with the suspects or lose their job. I can still remember that day.
The men were drunk and looked happy because they were going to kill that very night.
I was surprised that those were the people who were supposed to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
One of the policemen said in pigeon English, ‘na because of this man dem ask us to return everybody back, nawa ooo.
Other inmates were surprised to see us because they had never seen anybody they took away, returned again, let alone alive,” he said.
Thereafter, he, along with others were charged to court for murder at Apapa Magistrate Court. From there, they were moved to Ikoyi Prisons.
“I was taken to Medium Prison, were I spent about nine months before our documents came out and we were taken back to Ikoyi from the Medium.”
Olaide and the rest were subsequently taken to the Lagos High Court where he pleaded not guilty. After reading the charge, the case was adjourned. I thought that I would leave the court room for home.
How wrong I was; I return to prison in agony.” As the trial continued, Olaide said that he noticed that the Judge was biased.
Even his lawyer, according to him, also noticed it and wanted to withdraw the case from that particular court. “All the evidences brought by my lawyer were countered by the Judge.
At that point, my lawyer told my father that the judge was determined to send me to jail.
He advised that we withdraw the case from that court, promising to do his best. Unfortunately, he died three weeks later.” After the death of the lawyer, everything began to fall apart for Olaide.
His father, who had been everything to him, suddenly became sickly, forcing Olaide to plead with him to stop dragging himself to court at every trial day.
“I knew he was thinking too much and it was affecting his health. But he refused. He said that he would see to the end of the matter.
He continued to come. He even testified that he sent me to purchase goods for him, but this same Judge, refused to listen or belief. He eventually died 10 days later, in 1998.
When I didn’t see him again, I asked but they lied to me that he had become so weak to continue to appear in court. It was my kid brother that broke the news I never wanted to hear. The man was dead. He died for my cause. I still vividly remember the day I was convicted. Some lawyers were angry.
They said it was a wrong judgment. Many of them sympathised with me. Before then, Femi Falana had taken over my case. He wanted to make it a media issue but that didn’t work,” Olaide said. Popoola’s intervention turned out a miracle of sort Olaide lost his left eye due to lack of good medical facility and proper treatment after a minor accident.
While he was waiting for death and possible miracle, one of his friends, Popoola, who had completed his jail term, beckoned with a ray of hope.
“Popoola and I served in the Prison, a good fellow behind the walls. When he finished his jail terms, he started helping inmates to get out of prisons.
Popoola said he was doing it for God. But, because I had been duped by some lawyers, I refused to listen to him.
That was why I told Popoola off when he came with another lawyer, whom he said could help. He tried to convince me, but I obstinately refused. I told him to leave me to God. I was tired of lawyers.”
As he continued to snub Popoola, one Baba Toyin intervened and persuaded Olaide and others to give listening ears to people like Popoola, who went the extra length to help them. “Popoola met me at the condemn cell.
He was the only one allowed to come into death row cell because he had served there. He preached about lawyers that could help me out. He talked for a long time, until I decided to give his idea a trial.
Other inmates followed me,” he recounted. Popoola’s intervention turned out a miracle of sort, eventually. He helped Olaide regained his freedom on July 13, 2012 through his lawyer.
The day and time was, indeed, quite emotional for Olaide as he had lost all hopes.
He had witnessed the execution of about 45 inmates before this great miracle. He had equally witnessed inmates dropping dead out of fear and loss of hope. His first day of freedom was dramatic.
Tears of joy rolled down his wrinkled cheeks even as he confessed not to have recorgnised anywhere, anymore. “A good example was Fatai. He suddenly dropped dead.
Do you know how it feels to see that somebody beside you was already dead? Most times, you would see someone’s eyes wide open; you wouldn’t know that the person was dead,” Olaide recalled in tears. He noted that many inmates on death row were innocent.
“Innocent inmates, who may be killed if the Federal Government continues with the planned execution of people on death row, are many. There are so many of them in condemned cells,” he further said.
Incidentally, Olaide is not an isolated case. Owodo Williams, now 35, was also condemned to death at 17 years of age. He was declared innocent after over 17 years of waiting for death.
Williams presently squats with his younger brother at Ijora-Badia area of Lagos State. He was arrested in 1995 but regained his freedom on December 15, 2012.
Just like Olaide, Williams was reluctant to talk about life on death row.
He told this reporter in a subdued voice that “I’m just trying to forget that chapter of my life.”
After much persuasion, Williams opened up, recalling how he was arrested while playing the game of soccer with other friends in their neighbourhood at Layinka area of Ajegunle, also in Lagos State before a fight broke out between two friends.
He said: “It was a fight among friends. We were playing football. My friend, Tony, had a problem with another young boy called Daniel Obi.
While we were on the field playing, they were busy fighting. They fought until they got into the field, forcing us to stop playing.
We had to intervene at that point. Obi was bigger in size. Tony grabbed a bottle and broke it. Obi attempted to wrest the bottle from him, but got cut in the process. We tried to take him to hospital, but he refused.
He said that he wanted to retaliate. I left them and went home.” The following morning, Williams received some unusual visitors.
They turned out to be policemen. When they asked him for the whereabouts of Tony, he innocently directed them to Agungu Street, where Tony stayed with his parents.
“When they couldn’t get Tony, they said I should come with them to Ajeromi Police Station, to give statement on what happened on the field of play the previous day. At the station, I was detained.
We were about 17 boys that were playing football on that day. They arrested us all and later granted some bail. “The Police later granted us bail too, but insisted that we must report back to the station on a daily basis.
There was a day I reported as directed and I was ordered into the cell. Others that reported that reported at the station that day were also clammed into detention cell.
Later, we were transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba and, thereafter, charged for murder. It was in detention that we heard that Obi didn’t make it. He had died. Five of us were taken to Ikoyi prison on February 21, 1995.
It was like someone wrote a petition against us,” he recalled. Tortured and ordered to confess crime not committed Thereafter, the drama started.
According to Williams, “we were tortured at SCID and repeatedly ordered by the police to confess that we were part of those that killed Obi. They specifically asked me to confess as a condition for regaining my freedom.
They wanted me to say I killed the boy. I was just in SS3 at the time. Tony was accused of trying to collect Obi’s property. The beaten he received from the station, paralyzed him.
It was indescribable. “When I entered the torture room, I saw him, unconscious. Some policemen there were fighting over money recovered from the poor boy.
It’s like they had a bet. It was like a gamble to them. When they asked me what I knew about the case, I told them all that I knew but they didn’t believe me.
One of the policemen slammed the butt of his rifle on my head.
My head got broken and I bleed as if I was going to die. They asked me if Tony was my friend, I said yes.
They gave me a statement to sign. I noticed that it was not the statement I had earlier written because I could read and write but I was forced to follow their wish,” Williams said. He did not stop there. He said, “going to prison appears to be my destiny; It was my path.
If I think it outside of that belief, I would get depressed. If it’s not my destiny, all that happened to me, wouldn’t have happened to me. I wouldn’t have gone to prison. “Let me tell you the truth, I was not supposed to go to that field that day to play football.
On that fateful day, I was supposed to be in my uncle’s saloon at Layinka Street. My uncle went out and left the saloon in my charge. I left the shop for other people to mind. I went out.
Even as I walked to the football field, something kept telling me that I shouldn’t have left the saloon, that my uncle would beat me. I went there out of stubbornness and got into trouble.
Sometimes in life, you don’t have to blame yourself for certain things that happened to you. You just have to accept it as fate,” he said. Williams, nevertheless, was comical in his narration.
For instance, he recalled with how he became an acquaintance of the legendary General Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, popularly known as Reverend King in condemned cell.
“Do you know Reverend King?” he asked. “We were all on death row. Whenever someone among us got injured and another said sorry to the person,
King will caution the person not to say sorry to the person. He told us that in such situations, we should learn to thank God. Asked why?
He would explain that God may have used such to divert the death of such a person. “Whenever I reflected on such wise counsel, I thanked God.
What if I had died? So many of my friends had died; some are doing well, others not so well.
I’m even better than some of them at present in spite of what I had been through in life. So, I strongly believe that what I went through was my destiny.
If I hadn’t gone to prison, who knows, I may have died by now. Or, maybe, something more terrible might have happened to me.
I don’t regret going to prison, but I regret staying in prison for too long. I am pained; pained because age is not on my side any more. I find it difficult to secure a good job now.
If I had regained my freedom on time, say five or seven years ago, it would have been advantage of sort for me,” Williams said.
He, nonetheless, regretted that Edo State had rushed to validate the freshly passed death law in the country by killing those he described as innocent Nigerians on death row.
“He said I was stubborn, promising that I was going to die in the gulag for not cooperating. In spite of the intimidation, I told him that I was no longer scared of anybody, but
Rescued from executioner’s jaw (2)
They were condemned to death but
got respite in a miraculous way. JULIANA FRANCIS, who has been following
this pathetic story, concludes the touching tale of these ‘innocent’
Nigerians who had waited to die for years
Williams is the first child of his parents. He has two brothers and two sisters behind him. His parents had tried to secure his bail in 1995 when his ordeal started, but failed. He went on to spend eight years at the Ikoyi Prison before he was transferred on December 4, 2003 to Kirikiri Maximum Prison after he was condemned to death. Before then, the Police had tried to fleece his parents, pretending to be helping them. However, the prompt intervention of the leader of LEDAP, Chino Obiagwu, put a stop to that.
The lawyer advised Williams’s parents not to waste any other money because he was sure Williams did not commit any crime in the first place. Obiagwu, thereafter, headed for court since he felt Williams only offence was that of conspiracy. He eventually appealed his case and got Williams out. “Life in the prison was hell. There was a time I even contemplated committing suicide but an acquaintance I met in that dungeon, Ochuko, actually talked me out of it. Olaide, who played a father to me in the cell, was also helpful. If ones’ family members visit, the inmate will go to them in handcuff and leg chain. “There were those, who lost hope, knowing that they may never be set free.
Those were the ones that picked up unnecessary fight and tried to kill or blind fellow inmates. To them, life meant nothing as they kept feeling they had nothing to lose. Any one that crossed their path could get killed without qualms. Some of such people had spent over 28 years on death row,” Williams recalled. He also talked about another inmate, Akpos, an Ijaw indigene, who is still in incarceration without any known crime. And yet another, called Martins, who, Williams said, is still waiting for death. He had spent over 30 years in condemned cell. “Those on death row, we know ourselves. We know those who committed the crime for which they were been held and those who didn’t. We didn’t hide things from one another in condemned cell. We didn’t lie to one another.
We opened up because we felt there were nothing more to hide any longer. We see the condemned cell as the last bus stop,” he said. Several others like Akpos abound in confinement presently, waiting to either die or for a miracle. “They had witnessed many executions over the years, but God was just pushing them aside. One of them is Azubuike. He had spent over 40 years on death row. He was mentally deranged before we left the cell. He went mad after he and some other inmates were taken out to be executed. “The killing had already started, when an order came that they should not be killed. Azubuike witnessed the killing of his mates and instantly ran mad. He was the only inmate remaining to be shot when the order came. “In spite of this trauma, however, he was not released.
God just spared him because he would have been dead for an offence he never committed. Azubuike didn’t commit the offence that took him to condemned cell,” Williams said. But, Azubuike is not an isolated case. Ojo Adebayo, who was condemned at 16 years of age, also evokes pity. He had once attempted suicide out of frustration. Committing suicide was a pastime that many indulged in while waiting for death. Udafe Thomas was in this mould. He committed suicide in 2013. He was 31 years then. “Many of these inmates, who did not commit any crime, ended their lives in a bizarre manner instead of facing the humiliation of execution.
Do you know that one of those killed in Edo State recently was innocent? You may be wondering how we got to know. Some inmates were transferred from Edo State to join us at the Maximum Prison. That was how we knew. There is another, who did not commit any crime too. He is currently on death row. He came to visit his younger brother, who killed somebody and got into trouble. The brother was freed, while the innocent man is there waiting to be executed. Nigeria shouldn’t be wasting innocent souls. This may be part of what the country is suffering from at present. Those that have been waiting for death, who had spent 15 to 20 years, should be pardoned,” Williams begs. Williams did not only lament about life in the condemned cell but outside of it as well. He said: “I’m no longer a child. Since I regained my freedom, nobody is willing to give me a helping hand. The only person I could call a friend for now is the journalist that has literarily become my brother. I met him on the day I was released. He assisted me with money until I got something doing at Apapa. Later, I travelled out to Dubai and came back a month ago. I got a job at Dubai as a security guard. The salary was okay. But when you enter Dubai with a tourist visa, they will ask you to exit to get employment visa if you care to return back.”
The release of Obed and Edet was emotional and dramatic
The release of Sopuruchi Obed and Otobong Edet on July 5, was quite emotional and dramatic. They had waited for death until their miracle came. Obed is 26 now while Edet is 27. They were both teens when they got into trouble that changed their world view. For Obed, the excitement of his release was felt in the air when he was released. But he was not happy; reason being that he had spent greater number of his life in confinement as a result of circumstances he could not explain. He acted more like a child as he looked around his new environment, a world he had missed for long with awe. Everything looked strange and different as he kept running to no direction in particular.
He was over joyed. His elder brother, who was on hand to receive him into freedom, laughed embarrassingly at the sight of his long missed brother. He took a proper look at him before announcing that their aged parents kept a kind of vigil waiting to embrace their “lost” child. Edet was not left out of the drama. Though, he appeared to be the quiet type. Suddenly, in what looked like a movie scene, he ran towards his cousin, grabbed him tightly and cried out aloud. Many onlookers could not but joined in the exhibition of tearful joy that lasted for minutes.
He, thereafter, posed for photographs before picking up his scanty luggage and headed home where another round of celebration began. The Executive Programme Director of LEDAP, Mrs. Adaobi Egboka, who was equally on hand for the new day and anticipated reunion of the men with their families, said: “We want the government to know that death penalty is not the solution because our criminal justice system is still not perfect. We need to show these deficiencies in the system through practical purposes like the release of Obed and Edet.”
Obed was arrested around September 2004, at Obele Road, off Morogbo, Lagos on allegation of conspiracy to commit Armed Robbery. It is a crime contrary to Section 402(2) (a) of the Criminal Code Law CPAC1 & Law of Lagos. They were both said to have been armed with offensive weapons like guns in which they allegedly robbed one Praise Lawani of the sum of N54, 000. They were also set to have robbed their victim of a digital Kodak Camera valued at N60, 000, a Motorola handset, two wrist watches valued at N16, 000, two kitchen knives and a cutlass valued at N130, 000.
Recalling the event that truncated the smooth course of his life at a tender age 16, Obed said: “Everything happened in 2004. It was after my third term exam in school. I was in SSS2 then. After the exam, I embarked on holiday to Agbara, to stay with one of my uncles. “At Agbara, there was a café around there, which I usually go to browse to kill boredom. I went there as usual on October 16, in the morning at about 10am. I left the place and was returning in an Okada when I saw some policemen rounding up everybody around the place I just alighted. “I asked what was going on, instead of an answer, the Policemen arrested me also. They, thereafter, took us to Morogbo Police Station. It was there they labeled us robbers.
They singled me out for a serious beating as I attempted explaining where I was coming from. “They shot sporadically during the raid. And later shot me on the leg. I was scared to the bone because I had neither been to police station nor shot before then. I replied yes to everything the policemen asked; even when I knew they were lies. “After shooting my leg, the police did not treat me. All the time I was being taken to different places, before I landed in prison, I was in pains. It was at Ikoyi Prison that my wound was looked at,” Obed said.
As Obed pondered on what had just befallen him, Edet, sauntered in, in a poll of his blood. “He was bleeding when they brought him to join us. At first, I didn’t pay attention to him because of my own problem. “I was arrested on a Wednesday and he was brought in on Thursday. After my Dad’s visit two days later, they transferred us to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba. All of a sudden, everything changed to a robbery case. I became confused.
I mentioned names I never knew just to stay alive
There was a policeman called Abu John. He limped. He had knife with him, which he used to threaten us. He kept shouting at us, calling us robbers. He scared me to the point that I said yes to every of his accusation just to avoid further problem.” But, that was not all. According to Obed, “the policemen asked to know who my buyer was, but I told them I didn’t sell anything.
They insisted I tell them who my buyer was. When I couldn’t say anything, they took me to an uncompleted building, tied my hands and legs and joined them together to the back before putting a rod in-between. It looked like the Policemen were going to kill me. It was at that point that I started mentioning names I never knew, just to stay alive.”
Obed said he only realised that Edet was his case mate at SCID. He said: “Everything happened fast and within three weeks, they charged us to court from where we were taken to Ikoyi Prison and then we started going to High Court. We were not allowed to write our statements. The police wrote for us and just ordered us to append our signatures.
“It was like they just copied what they wrote in the other station and asked us to sign it. They didn’t even allow us to read it. My case was transferred from another court to one Justice Dada’s Court. He started my case in May 2008 and completed it in May 2009. I never saw the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), who claimed to have taken my statement. “The first day I saw him was when we were being taken to the Ebute-Metta Magistrates’ Court. He lied to my face and I asked why they were doing what they were doing. But nobody cared, as they were bent on sending me to prison for a crime I didn’t commit.”
We were tortured to the point of death
Obed also experienced a riot in 2005 in which several inmates died at the Ikoyi Prison. “I was writing GCE in prison then. The riot spoilt my result because we didn’t get our result that year. I was transferred to Kirikiri Prison after they condemned me. We were four in a very small cell room. I was the youngest among my group. “Once the prison was locked, anything you want to do will be done inside that room. We urinated and defecated there. We did everything inside a custard bucket; it was not something to imagine at all.
The quantity and quality of food was very bad. And, the experience was, indeed, very terrible,” he said. Yet, there were some pluses in spite of all the chastisements. One impressive achievement Obed recorded while on death row was in enrolling in the Open University. By the time he was acquitted, he was already in 300 levels in the school faculty of Law. “I decided to keep faith instead of thinking of death. I also embraced football and music. I became famous for my foot skills,” Obed said. But, for the pastor, who assisted to link me to the pro-bono lawyers, perhaps, things would have taken a different turn. He said: “I met pastor Ariyo Popoola while waiting at the ATM (Awaiting Trial Men). He wasn’t like ordinary pastor. He was close to us. He was like a father to most of us.
We got to know LEDAP through him.” Obed also recalled that condemned cell is not for the faint-hearted. According to him, some, who were not so strong simply dropped dead just because they heard or knew they would be killed. “Many of us died, not because they were in the prison, but because they heard that they would be killed. Without a strong mind and God with you, thinking alone could make someone to die or run mad,” Obed further said. Edet, who was selling cassettes, was also shocked when he was accused of robbery. He said: “I had a shop at Morogbo Bus-Stop, where I sold cassettes. On that fateful day, as I was going home at 8pm, I heard that some policemen came to look for me while I was away. Before I knew it, I was told not to enter my room until I solved the problem with the police.
I did not sleep at home that day. I went to the home of a friend of mine to sleep. “The following morning, my friend said that both of us should go to the station, at least to know what the problem was. As we were going to the station, we stopped by the Baale’s place. The police met us there and arrested me. But, they didn’t say what my offence was. They just brought out gun and shot my leg. “They took me to my house and packed everything. After that, they took me to Morogbo Police Station. It was there I saw Obed for the first time in my life. He was already in the cell. One of the policemen asked if I knew Obed, I said no. and honestly, that day was my first time of seeing Obed.” He was subsequently transferred to SCID where he was tortured to the point of death.
“They took us to court on October, 27, 2004 and remanded us at Ikoyi prison. After a year or so, they took us to High Court. We were in High Court when the judge, who was in charge of the case, Justice Nwaka, went for tribunal election. “The election did not allow her step into the court for a whole year. The lawyer in charge of the case had to take the case to another judge called Justice Dada, who eventually sentenced us to death,” Edet recalled. Edet’s long walk to prison started after his father’s death. He had to drop out of school, left Akwa Ibom and came to Lagos State, to become an apprentice to a man selling cassettes. “I served my master for two years. After serving the man, he opened a shop for me to start selling cassettes. I was in prison when I also received the news of my mother’s demise. I didn’t need any soothsayer, when I heard that, to tell me she died because of me.”
Concluded.
Twist of fate (3)
Some convicts were set up by the Police –Ajitemisan
False stories are peddled about prisons –Prisons PRO
‘It’s possible for someone to be wrongly convicted’
The story of Mrs. Stella Offor is another that is somewhat touching. As a police woman, Offor may have inadvertently sent some innocent persons to prison. She may never have bargained that fate could someday play a fast one on her also. But, that was what happened as she, in a twist of destiny, ended up becoming a guest of the Nigeria Prisons.
At her Gowon Estate residence in Lagos, Offor, who wept profusely, narrated her ordeals, which eventually landed her in the dungeon. Incidentally, her incarceration led to the breakdown of her once cherished marriage, which she had guarded jealously before the event of that day. The horrible experience shattered her life almost beyond redemption. But, for His grace, she may never have been able to pick up again.
Offor’s journey to prison started around September 2009 after an unknown person wrote a petition against her. The petitioner claimed she absconded from duty in defiance to her new posting. She was subsequently picked up by officers of the Zone 11, Onikan Police Station where she was later locked up for a month and three days. She got a temporary respite in October 2009 before being picked again after just one month and kept in detention, and her salary stopped.
But, that was not all. She was later accused of collecting salary without working, an allegation that led to her dismissal from the Force. Recalling the spiteful event, Offor said: “Before you know it, they took me to prison where I spent a year and six months. While I was there, I heard that my things were thrown out of police quarters where I was living.
“As I speak now, I and my daughter have been sleeping outside. Prison was a very bad experience for me but, I thank God for seeing me through. It is a place where, if you don’t have anybody, you turn to your God.”
She encountered five women in prison, who were on death row, before she was set free. “They were involved in cases of murder. Ganiyat was the youngest of the women. Her family never visited. She was 27 years old then. Her condition was unimaginable; I always pitied her,” Ofor, who intermittently fought back tears, recalled.
One could be maimed or killed in prisons
The former policewoman went on to describe prison as a place “you learn to mind your business or be maimed or killed.” She was shocked to find out that lesbianism, as an act, thrives in the female chamber. “A lady once attacked me with a razor blade; her name is Sarah.
“She attacked me just because I advised her to always remember what brought her to the Prison. That was when our head prisoner warned me to be careful of inmates, who indulged in lesbianism. We had some of them, who never valued their lives. They were the ones, who indulged in such despicable acts. Although, those that were sober, trusted in God and fervently prayed for a miracle.”
That was not all. She also met aged female inmate, who was in her 50s suffering from High Blood Pressure. “We called her mama. She spent 35 years in prison before a presidential pardon came her way; unfortunately, she died barely a year after her release. Mama was condemned to death for murder. Her husband was said to have married two of them.
Her rival allegedly killed her child and she angrily reacted by throwing the woman’s child into a well. Mama later died of thinking. There was a time in the Prison that she acted like a lunatic and many of us were afraid that she was going insane,” Offor said.
Offor did not spare the Prisons as well, as she insisted that reforms are needed behind the Walls to be at par with the global standard in this 21st century. She said that female prisons, for instance, had 35 inmates instead of 25 the cell was originally planned to accommodate. Before she left, however, the number had risen to 55.
She said: “We had a cell called Very Important Personality (VIP) room. It was reserved for eminent people, who had enough money to spend. The Prison authorities were charging them N40, 000 to be accommodated there.
“The food in the popular side was terrible. This, however, changes whenever the Controller was around on routine check on inmates. It was only at such occasions that we were served quality foods. The wardresses were corrupt. They shared our gifts from churches among themselves, even tablet soaps, including medicated soaps meant for us. They would seize them and buy Oki soaps for us to use. We normally contribute money for Izal because the pit toilet we were using was very bad. In fact, we were made to clear our faeces with bare hand, though, as a form of punishment from the wardresses.
There was something called special arrangement also in prison; people escaped through that process. Inmates were equally tortured any time they contravened the law,” she recalled.
Incidentally, Offor did not have the luxury of having to pick the pieces of what is left of her once vibrant life, gradually. She was made to further lick the wounds of her broken life in a cruel manner.
She was kicked out of her three bedrooms flat immediately she was released. This forced her to reluctantly distribute her kids as well as scattering her other belongings in shanties within the estate. Offor and her youngest daughter slept in the corridor of one of the roughly constructed buildings within their estate.
Darlington Ajitemisan, a former prison Chaplain and now a human rights activist, appears to have also seen the reverse of what life could offer. He is today an anti-drug crusader and General Overseer of Open Channel Bible Church, Gowon Estate, Lagos State.
But, he did not set out to be one from the onset. Experiences of life behind the Walls of prisons changed his perception of life in general. He was incarcerated in India, Jamaica and Brussels prisons at various points in his life. His offence in India was that of alleged espionage. In Nigeria, he got into trouble for human rights activism.
Ajitemisan encountered Jesus Christ in prison and became a born-again Christian. Soon, he started to evangelise, spreading salvation news and preaching to inmates from prison to prison. He has been doing this for the past 27 years. This enabled him to further understand the goings on within the Prison Walls.
It was one of such sojourns at the reformatory homes that he met his wife, Funmilayo. In a chat with this reporter, Ajitemisan condemned death penalty, wandering why Nigeria is still hanging on to it while other countries had long abolished and sponged it from their penal code.
He is currently not comfortable with the country’s stance on death penalty. He tried to explain the horrible manner convicts were executed. He told this reporter that there are two ways of killing condemned convicts in Nigeria. The first, according to him, is by hanging.
“Here, the inmates’ faces are covered and a rope placed around their necks. They are made to stand on a podium with their hands tied. The podium is then kicked off from under to allow the rope strangles them to death. In most cases, the inmates don’t die immediately, their eyes would bulge out and their tongues stretched beyond normal. This gives many nightmares.
At other times, they use the acceleration method, in which case the inmates would be hit with a wood, to break their legs so that the connection between the bones and the spinal cord is severed. It is the worst and most painful way to die.
“The second process is by firing squad. Once a governor signs the death warrant, execution begins. In this system, the inmates are tied to stakes and their faces covered. Though, some would prefer to watch their execution, which is usually done by shooting from soldiers or the Police. On the D-day, inmates are never told of what they were to face. Instead, they are deceived to believe they were going to be released or transferred to another prison. They would be further fooled to remove their prison garments and wear normal clothes. They would, though, erroneously be happy preparing to die without knowing so,” Ajitemisan said.
He went on to describe the executioners as undertakers, whose emotions, he said, have long died because of their odious job. He, however, explained that most people who applied to work with the Prison Service end up becoming a hangman. “Once chosen, a hangman lives apart from his family. He only visits his family on weekends. This is to make sure the family members know nothing or understands the nature of job and to safeguard them from being attacked,” he further said.
Ajitemisan argued on the stance of the global human rights community that death penalty never served as deterrent to criminals. “Most of them on death row are innocent; most of them from poor homes, who do not have access to quality lawyers. Many of them were sentenced without any legal defence. And when they have legal representation, the police will not bring proof,” he further agonised.
He also pointed out that many women had been killed under the Sharia Law without proper court trials. “Let us not forget the case of Safiyat Hussaini. They said she got pregnant for another man and for that they were going to kill her. Safiyat would have been killed if not for the local as well as global outcry.
There was also Aminat Lawal, who they claimed committed adultery. Like Safiyat, she would have been forgotten by now but for public outcry also. The authorities would have wasted these two women. You can see the injustice of this death penalty. In states where the Sharia Law is in operation, women are discriminated against. The law is always against them.”
Death sentences attract global condemnation
Ajitemisan could still not understand why President Goodluck Jonathan is hanging on to death penalty in spite of its global condemnation. He detested the President’s approval of death warrant.
“It is bad for him to encourage governors to start implanting the killing of inmates on death row. The only excuse was to decongest the prisons; but, killing is not the best way to decongest prisons,” Ajitemisan said, adding, “What this means is that several innocent people would be killed and continued to be killed. That to me is not prison decongestion; it is simply genocide. Although, there had also been slow action in the execution of women on death row, but with the recent proclamation by Mr. President, it does appear to me that it is just a matter of time women on death row would be wiped out.”
However, Ajitemisan is advocating the establishment of a Special Commission by the government, which, according to him, would among other things, reinvestigate all cases that have to do with death penalty.
He did not stop there but said, “because I am a preacher, the inmates speak freely with me. This has enabled me to understand that 80 per cent of people on death row are innocent. They see me as their counsellor. They tell me the fundamental truth.
“Most of them were set up by the Police. If you don’t pay money demanded from you by them, you will be tagged an armed robber. I was once locked up at Alagbon, so I know what I am talking about. Police will shoot you on the leg. Mafia syndrome also exists in prison. This is a situation whereby policemen connive with inmates to carry out robbery operations. The inmates here are the rich and powerful.”
Ajitemisan’s other worry is the fact that underage inmates, those under 18, are imprisoned with adults. This practice he said is against the law. According to him, “they abound in Female prisons, both at Ikoyi and the maximum in Kirikiri. Most of these kids have been introduced to homosexual acts.
There was a day I entered the church at the Ikoyi Prisons and saw one of such teens, with sperm dropping from his anus. They are traumatised and have been conditioned like Zombies. There was a section originally reserved for youngsters. Unfortunately, they have converted them to a special apartment for the rich. They have been renovated. They now look spacious and fitted with air conditioners. The rich pay special fee to be allowed to stay in that section, nicknamed ‘executive’. It is the same at the Ikoyi Prisons. As with the girl’s section, the rich and powerful has equally taken that over. It was meant to enable them acquire valuable skills before leaving the prison.”
Incidentally, the Public Relations and Correctional officer, Nigerian Prisons Service, Ope Fatinikun, has put a lie to most of the insinuations about the Prisons. He told this reporter that “most of the stories being peddled around about the Nigerian Prisons were false.” According to Fatinikun, “all those sent to prisons and later found on death row were sent there by a court of competent jurisdiction. The prisons can’t contest such judgment. It is only a higher court that can counter such a verdict. We have no right to say otherwise when someone had been pronounced guilty by the court.”
He, however, noted that in spite of such sentences and, especially for those on death row, the prisons have professional bodies, which attend to inmates. “The body is made up of professionals like welfare officers, nurses, doctors, sociologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists, among others. This is the ‘Reception Board’ and they meet every day in prisons.
“The Reception Board is like a court inside the Prison. When an inmate comes in, we ask questions. For those on death row, we ask if they had legal representation. If they say no, we arrange for a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) or federal lawyers to assist them. The board directs such a fellow to a psychologist, who will speak to cushion the effect of the verdict. The psychologist job is essentially to counsel them in believing that whatever they were facing at that point in time should not be seen as the end of their live. We also try to find out those who are willing to appeal their jugdgement and arrange a welfare officer, who lectures them on the proper way to go about it.
“The first point is at the Federal Court of Appeal. If that fails, it proceeds to Supreme Court, which is the apex court in the land. If all fail, the same team will start working on the possibility of the inmate benefitting from prerogative of mercy from the governor. That someone is on death row doesn’t mean he or she would be killed the following day. We have processes. The main purpose of prison is to reform and deter others. It, however, does not stop us from doing our work as prison officials. Our main job is to reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate inmates into the society,” Fatinikun said.
Bosta homes, according to Fatinikun, are terminologies given to prisons meant for underage inmates. He denied the allegations that kids are kept in adult cells, leading to them being raped by grown-ups.
He said: “It is not true; underage inmates had never been imprisoned with adults. We have what we call Bosta institutions across the country. They are for people below 18 years of age. Court sends them to Bosta institutions for correctional purpose.
The Bosta institutions have schools, skill acquisition centres and vocational centres. One can write the West African School Certificate (WASC) from there, and even proceed to the University. Any of them that were sentenced for murder, for instance, would be kept in that home until they are 18 years before we can send such a person to prison proper. There are several of such homes in Kaduna, Kwara and Ogun states. At present, we have about 428 inmates in Kaduna Bosta home, 217 in Kwara, and 202 in Ogun.”
The prisons image maker also denied claims that the Ikoyi Bosta home has become an abode for “Very Important Personalities.” He said though, the Prison does not believe in special cells, but that the law allows for inmates according to their status.
“We have journalists in Ikoyi Prison; we know they got there because of their write ups and so, it would be wrong if they are locked up in the same cell with other criminals. If we do that, the journalist could be killed. In like manner, it is unthinkable to put a personality like the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola in the same cell with pick pockets. We can’t put an ex-governor or president in the same cell with other inmates; they could be killed. The governor or president could be perceived as someone, who had at one time or the other signed a death warrant of those in prison,” Fatinikun explained, adding that prisons are not currently congested.
Bosta homes, now abode for important personalities
Williams Owodo confirmed that Bosta home existed at Ikoyi before now, but not anymore. He explained that since the likes of Bamayi, Mustapha and others that were accommodated in that home, the situation had not been reverted.
“Underage inmates are now kept in general prison. But some are still kept with the rich people. Though, they do not sodomise the kids. It is those in general prisons, who look at a kid that had committed murder or robbery and reason that he could handle stuff like sodomy. But, let us be clear about something. That isn’t rape. These kids do it willingly for food, clothing or money. Most of these kids’ parents no longer come to check on them. Warders, preachers and pastors are always speaking against it, yet some people continue to indulge in it.”
However, a Lagos-based lawyer, Ola Agbaje, was shocked to hear that someone on death row or prison could be innocent. According to him, inmates are sent to death row because they were convicted by a court. “No court can convict without due process, without taking the accused or defendant through the right legal process.
“Under the Nigerian law, there are certain laws that are sacrosanct. This has to do with Section 33 of the Constitution, which provides for the right to life of every citizen of the country. Section 33, Sub-section 1, says that every person has a right to life and no one shall be deprive intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he had been found guilty in Nigeria. In line with that is Section 36 of the Constitution, which says that before anyone could be convicted and sentenced to death, the person concerned must have been given every avenue legally applicable to prove his innocence as stipulated under Section 36 of the Constitution.”
According to Agbaje, in line with the law on fair hearing, the defendant must be allowed access to every material needed to defend himself in order to prove his innocence. He said that every suspect has a right to legal representation by a counsel.
“I find it strange that there are innocent people on death row because every judge is aware of the due process of the law. That’s the primary duty of judicial officers,” he added.
He, however, admitted that it is possible for someone to be wrongly convicted as a result of poor handling of his defence. “Judges may determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant on the basis of evidence adduced and proven. And the standard of proof in criminal matter is beyond all reasonable doubt. What we should be looking out for is the need to overhaul the investigative process. What we have now is certainly below the modern day investigation procedure.
“A situation whereby an Investigating Police Officer (IPO), may have been induced by vested interest, writes statement for a suspect without the presence of the suspect’s lawyer would be grossly inadequate and cannot lead to proper justice.
“Unfortunately, you find this kind of situation regularly in our system. The first and most crucial of due process is the investigative state. It is the foundation stage as well as the fundamental. When it goes wrong at the foundational level, it will affect the whole process, which will ultimately lead to injustice,” the lawyer said.
Agbaje made reference to the case of Nasiru Bello versus Attorney General of Oyo State (1986), where he said that Bello was executed even though his matter was still pending at the court. He said that the Supreme Court condemned the execution and cautioned that such act was not permissible in any civilised society.
“In that instance, it will be correct to say that someone on death row could as well be innocent. You can’t blame the judge, who sentenced the accused because he must have based the guilt or innocence of the accused person on the evidence before him.
“But, an accused convicted in lower court can go to Appeal Court, and even to Supreme Court, to attain justice. But, how many convicts can afford lawyers to head to Supreme Court? It is time, we started reforms, where indigent convicts can access the Appeal Court through quality legal aid from the government,” Agbaje stated.
Concluded
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