By Anthony Iwuoma
It is repugnant.The poignant story of Segun Olowookere, the Osun man, who recently made headline news for being sentenced to death in 2014, after already spending four years awaiting trial, is repugnant. For allegedly stealing a mere fowl, the then 17-year-old would have been wasted in a country where stealing an elephant and getting away with it has become a statecraft.
It is not by accident that Olowookere’s gripping story came to the fore at a time activist, lawyer and writer, Dele Farotimi, is being dragged about for alleged criminal defamation. If we remove Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, from the mix, Farotimi would be accused of criminally defaming the Nigerian criminal justice system, which has no reputation worth defaming in the first place.
The hapless boy and his friend were accused of breaking into a home and stealing a fowl and eggs, armed with weapons, including a hunter’s gun retrieved from another boy’s house, all fabricated to create the impression that the boys were violent criminals.
Olowookere pleaded his innocence but sadly, in Nigeria, innocence is defined by how much you can cough into the hands of crooked investigating police officers or the judges, who supervise the rape of Lady Justice, but because Olowookere had none, he must die.
His parents claimed that the DPO of the station where he was detained demanded N30,000 from them to set the boy free but because the poor parents could only scrape N20, 000 the roguery cop preferred to send him to the guillotine. According to Olowookere’s father, the DPO said he had no child and, therefore, had no reason to be merciful. How callous!
The man had no scruples nailing the minor to the cross and by so doing close a chapter that was just about to unfurl as if he was responsible for his childlessness.
It seems Nigeria has recruited frustrated monsters into the law enforcement system; people who have a grudge to settle with life and make hapless citizens their easy prey.
Wherever that DPO is, even if he is retired, he must be brought to book. Several innocent Nigerians are languishing behind bars for offences they did not commit because they could not ‘settle’ the police or have nobody to plead for them.
We are dealing with a rotten judicial system that is skewed against the innocent and voiceless poor for whom access to fair justice remains a pipedream. While judges are in a hurry to use the entire weight of the law to crush the poor, they treat hardcore criminals in the corridors of power and wealth with abhorrent reverence.
In 2021, the Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced Abdulrasheed Maina, the former chairperson of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT, to mere eight years’ imprisonment after embezzling N2 billion in pension fund
On April 13, 2022, the Supreme Court affirmed six years jail term imposed on a former Assistant Director in the Police Pension Office, John Yakubu Yusuf, who had been prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over a whopping N22.9 billion fraud.
Justice Abubakar Talba of a Federal Capital Territory High Court had, for inexplicable reasons, initially convicted and sentenced him to an ignoble two years imprisonment with an option of fine of N750, 000 for stealing N32.8 billion from the Police Pension Fund.
Dissatisfied, the EFCC went on appeal where Yusuf admitted to converting a total sum of N24 billion to his personal use. He was, therefore, sentenced to six years in jail and ordered to return the stolen N22.9billion.
However, Yusuf had the temerity to appeal to the Supreme Court, praying the apex court to set aside his conviction and the order to refund N22.9b on the ground that the Appellate Court’s judgment was a miscarriage of justice. Thankfully, the Supreme Court threw out his appeal, describing it as frivolous, vexatious and devoid of merit. Such is the unpredictable mixed bag of our judicial system.
The rich and powerful steal the country blind and use their loot to buy favourable judgements, which are mostly a slap on the wrist. They pillage our commonwealth, steal our destiny and tell us to court because they know the judges are on their payroll. They would go on to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth and are celebrated by a morally squashed, weak and weakened society.
Whatever Farotimi is going through right now is a fight for a saner judiciary. He is not the one on trial but the criminal (even civil) justice system. The government and its officials run on their own will, forum shopping or picking court pronouncements to obey or ignore.
Take the cases cited above. Of course, judges have discretionary powers but is discretion unreasonableness? Why would someone who stole billions be let off if he pays back a miserly N750000 in fine while another must die because he stole a mere fowl?
The dilemma of it all is that the law is what the judiciary says it is. However, what happens when the courts have become palpably compromised? Nigerians are witnesses to the most bizarre interpretations of the law. The fourth had become the first in this country all because the court says so. Conjunctions have become adverbs because the court says so. Even the Supreme Court judgements have been upturned by lower courts and nothing happens. The continued tramping of the rule of law and farcical court pronouncements can only lead to doom for this country.
Olowookere’s claim that he was innocent is not even the crux of the matter. The issue is that even if he was guilty, the entire process was compromised against him. There is nobody that hears about his plight that would not get angry and cry blue murder, all because of a cold and corrupt system.
Governor Ademola Adeleke’s directive that Olowookere should be ‘pardoned’ is worthy. However, there must be some consideration to help the young man to overcome the trauma of having wasted 14 years of his life so that bitterness does not push him to extreme actions.
It is noteworthy that nobody should be encouraged to steal. Thieves actually should face their consequences. However, there are processes. Olowookere was a minor and his case should have been so treated.
Anyway, who is even a thief by Nigerian definition – only a poor man who stole what does not belong to him? So, how do we describe the privileged knaves in power who have even stolen the entire country? If Olowookere could be sentenced to death, what should be done to such people?
Justice Jide Falola, who passed the infamous death sentence on Olowookere, was last year booted out of service by the National Judicial Council, NJC, over misconduct. Ironically, he still defends his obnoxious trial and conviction of a minor for ‘armed robbery’ and sentencing him to death. How would he feel if NJC had not been gracious and given him a similar judgement?
Olowookere’s pathetic story as aired on BBC has further amplified the queer reputation of Nigeria, widely acknowledged as a country of the weird.
The ongoing case between Farotimi and Babalola has turned into one of Nigeria’s eerie melodramas. Nobody knows whether it s a case of defamation or persecution.
Why would police arrest him in Lagos, ferry him across borders to Ekiti to face trial? Why must he be handcuffed like a common criminal? Did he threaten anybody with harm that he had to be cuffed; who did he threaten?
Indeed, Farotimi’s shabby treatment buttresses the suspicion that there is more to this than a book that many would not even have bothered to read. The bungling procedure backfired and made it an international best-seller. Farotimi’s pen has proven to be mightier than the brutality meted to him.
Whatever conclusions the law eventually makes of this matter shall be contaminated by that unwholesome conduct and, however the case ends; there’ll be no other winner but Farotimi and the deprived justice system that must now receive attention.
Farotimi is sound; very sound in all that he says and does. So, he knows what he is up against before blowing up the smelly rut of our judicial system at a personal risk.
Ironically, even the macabre justice system Farotimi has chosen to fight will still decide his fate. Only the courageous like Farotimi can ruffle feathers.
I bet, a lot of murk is still waiting to be raked up in this shameful display.
I wish this court case didn’t happen; just as Olowookere should never have happened. And whatever gives rise to this kind of scenario must be intentionally exorcised from the gamut of Nigeria’s diseased persona.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
