OSOGBO, Nigeria (AP) — The Osun State Judiciary has defended a 2014 death sentence handed down to a man convicted of armed robbery after the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, pardoned him and 52 other inmates.
Adeleke granted the pardon to 53 individuals, including Olowookere Segun, after a review by the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy. The decision comes nearly 10 years after Segun was sentenced to death by hanging for robbing a poultry farm while armed.
The governor’s intervention followed appeals from Segun’s family, who argued that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice and that he was innocent of the crime. The family’s claims sparked public outcry over the severity of the sentence for what they described as the theft of a fowl.
Adeleke, exercising his constitutional power of mercy, announced the pardons on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on Tuesday. He explained that the pardons were based on recommendations to remit sentences for those convicted of lesser offenses and forgive the remainder of the sentences for others.
However, the decision has generated controversy, with some questioning the fairness of Segun’s conviction. In response, the Osun State Judiciary issued a statement defending the sentence.
The statement, titled “Setting the Record Straight,” was released on December 20 and signed by F.I. Omisade, the Chief Registrar of the state judiciary. It strongly criticized what it called a distortion of facts in media reports about the case. The statement clarified that Segun, who was 19 at the time of the offense, was not sentenced to death for stealing a fowl, as some reports had suggested.
According to the judiciary, Segun and his accomplice, Morakinyo Sunday, were caught in April 2010 while robbing a poultry farm at gunpoint in Oyan town, Osun State. They were arrested with firearms, and both confessed to multiple armed robberies.
The statement emphasized that under Nigerian law, individuals convicted of armed robbery with a deadly weapon must face a mandatory death sentence.
“The law is clear: a person cannot be sentenced to death for stealing a fowl alone,” Omisade said. “The defendant must have been armed at the time of the crime. In this case, Segun and his accomplice were armed and engaged in a series of armed robberies, which justified the death sentence under the law.”
The judiciary’s defense aims to clarify the legal basis for the original sentence, which has been a focal point of public debate following Adeleke’s pardon.
