Osun court denies sentencing fowl thieves to death

The Osun State High Court has dismissed widespread reports suggesting that a young man, Olowookere Segun, was sentenced to death for stealing a fowl, describing the claims as false and maliciously distorted.

This is just as the State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, announced on Thursday that Olowookere and his co-convict, Sunday Morakinyo, had been granted a pardon by the state government.

A statement titled, “Setting the Record Straight,” issued by the registrar of the State High Court, Omisade F. I., on December 20, 2024, and obtained by PUNCH Metro on Thursday, dismissed claims that it had sentenced the duo for stealing a fowl.

 Although the trial, which spanned from February 11, 2013, to December 17, 2014, found the duo guilty of multiple armed robberies, including an armed robbery at a poultry, the judgement sparked controversy a decade later, with many Nigerians expressing outrage.

Following pleas from the convict’s parents, Folashade and Olanrewaju, who maintained their son’s innocence and appealed to Governor Adeleke for leniency, the governor had assured them last week that he would consider the possibility of granting a pardon.

Fulfilling his promise, Adekeke, through a statement released on Thursday by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, announced the pardon of Olowookere, Morakinyo, and 51 other inmates.

The statement partly read, “In line with the recommendations of the State Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy, Governor Ademola Adeleke has exercised the prerogative of mercy towards 53 convicts serving various convictions within the Nigerian Correctional Service.

“Now know ye therefore that, I, Senator Ademola Jackson Adeleke, the Governor of Osun State of Nigeria, in exercise of the power conferred on me by paragraph (a), (c) and (d) of subsection (i) of Section 212 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended), I am pleased to extend my grace and mercy unto the said inmates.

“Convicts recommended for outright pardon for good conduct (capital offences) are: Sunday Morakinyo, Segun Olowookere, Tunde Olapade and Demola Odeyemi.”

Responding to public outrage, the court clarified that Olowookere and his accomplice, Morakinyo, were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging for armed robbery by the High Court of Justice, Ikirun Judicial Division, presided over by Hon. Justice S.O. Falola.

PUNCH Metro reports that this clarification contradicts widespread reports claiming they were convicted for stealing a fowl.

  The statement read, “The succinct fact of this case was that the boy, Olowookere, and one other person, Morakinyo Sunday, were going about in Oyan town and its neighbourhood robbing innocent and unsuspecting people at gunpoint.

“Luck ran out on them in April 2010 when they were caught in action while robbing a poultry. Arms were recovered from them. They equally confessed to committing several armed robberies.

“The facts of the case have been distorted and maliciously misrepresented to the generality of the people. What has been laid before the public domain is that this boy was convicted and sentenced to death for stealing one fowl.

“An educated person does not need to be a lawyer before being well informed to know as a fact that a person cannot be sentenced to death for stealing a fowl, not even N1bn, without being armed at the time of committing the crime.”

The court explained that armed robbery crime attracts a mandatory death sentence if the accused is armed, leaving the judge no discretion after conviction.

Clarifying details about the defendants’ ages, the statement revealed that Olowookere was 17 years old at the time of his arrest in 2010, contrary to claims that he was a minor while his accomplice, Sunday, was 18 years old at the time of arrest and trial.

“The said Olowookere, the first accused person in suit No. HKK/2/2012, was 17 years old at the time of the trial, which has been blown out of proportion and is nothing but nauseating falsehood.

“He was in fact 17 years old at the time he was arrested and made to stand trial. His extrajudicial statement and the information upon which they were tried attest to this. The second accused person, Morakinyo, was 18 years old as at that time.

“What is more, his age or that of the second accused person was never an issue before the court at any stage of the trial. It is, therefore, a desperate design to whip up underserved sentiment,” the statement added.

The court stressed that the judge, in addition to delivering the mandatory sentence, recommended the convicts for clemency, demonstrating compassion and fairness within the confines of the law.

The court added, “The entire scenario woven around this case has been skewed to malign the personality of the trial judge and denigrate the Osun State High Court as an institution.

“The trial judge, in His Lordship’s characteristic magnanimity, large heart, and fatherly disposition, did what the law prescribed and went further to recommend them for the mercy of the governor.”

The court further urged the public to verify facts before drawing conclusions and cautioned against spreading misinformation aimed at undermining judicial integrity.