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I spent 28 years on death row for nothing — Onwuche, 68-year-old cook

Published

3 years ago

December 12, 2021

Thirty-nine years ago, Mr. Innocent Onwuche, an indigene of Umuahia, Abia State was a relatively comfortable man. He had a wife, a son, and a comfortable job as a cook in the residence of a very notable accountant in Ibadan, Oyo State.

A few years before then, he had voluntarily left the services of one of the biggest firms in the South-West at that time, after working for 10 years as a cook.

For someone who had no formal education, Innocent considered himself a successful man among his peers. Life, however, suddenly took a bad twist for him one fateful morning when a team of policemen pretending to be job seekers arrested him outside the gate of the house of his boss and bundled him into their van.

Arrested, tortured for unknown crime
Narrating how the incident happened, Onwuche said: “I was inside my Oga’s house when someone told me that some people outside were looking for me. The person said they were looking for a job and wanted my assistance. Immediately I stepped outside the gate to meet them, they grabbed me. I was confused and began to fight them. The vases in front of the house were all broken during the fight. But they finally subdued me and bundled me into their van.”

Onwuche said he was taken to Sango Otta Police Station where he was beaten thoroughly for fighting the policemen who arrested him. According to him, despite his persistent inquiry, no one told him his crime. He said: “While at the police station, no one told me what I did. In the morning, I was seriously beaten again by the policemen who claimed that I used charm to fight them. They broke my leg with their baton, poured a bucket full of urine by some prostitutes arrested the previous night on me.

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“I was in serious pain and couldn’t walk. That morning they said there was no cell in Sango Otta Police Station and that they were taking me to Bodija Police Station. On our way to the station, they stopped at Sango Market, bought about 12 canes. When they got to the station, they descended heavily on me with the canes.”

Writhing in pain from his broken bones, Innocent said he continued to ask them his offence until the police officers finally told him that a man had died from an acid wound and that he (Onwuche) was responsible for the death. “Two days after my arrest, they told me that I poured acid on someone and that after three days, the man died in the hospital,” he said.

Scammed by late acid attack victim
Recalling his connection with the man who was said to have died from an acid attack, Innocent said he was shocked over the allegation that he killed the victim. “I was shocked when they said I poured acid on the man. When they described the man, it was then I recalled that he was the one that duped me of N17, 650 some months back,” he said.

Giving further details of his connection with the dead victim, Onwuche stated: “One of my friends then, Balogun, introduced me to some men who I later discovered were into fraud. They asked me to write a letter for them and after some days, they came to thank me that the letter worked for them. Another day, they met me on my way to Sango Market and insisted that I must know their house. When I got to their house, they showed me how they can use black soap to make someone rich. They duped me N17,650 that day.

“I later met one Fred who offered to assist me to recover my money. He brought some soldiers who went with me to recover the money. The soldiers flogged the fraudsters but still, they couldn’t produce my money. They, however, left the fraudsters after they promised to pay my money back. I kept disturbing them but they never paid me the money. It was after some months that the police arrested me for the death of one of the fraudsters through an acid attack.”

Onwuche’s trial for the murder of the man whom he insists duped him lasted for eight years with many dramas. From the Magistrate Court, the matter was moved to the High Court following the advice of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP, that he had a case to answer.

Mysterious deaths
Whether it was a sign of his innocence, he could not tell, but Onwuche noted that four out of the five persons that testified against him in court died mysteriously. According to him: “The deceased man’s mother insisted that I came alone while another witness said I came in the company of three other people. The late man’s wife died of complications from abortion on the day he was to testify in court. The interpreter also died; likewise the third witness. The late man’s son called Bala also died; making it a total of four persons that died in the matter.”

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Condemned to death
When Onwuche’s trial began at the High Court, he could not afford a lawyer and had to rely on the services of a pro-bono lawyer from the Office of the Public Defender, OPD. Despite insisting on his innocence, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to die by hanging on December 16, 2002. ‘I never committed that crime,’ he told our correspondent. Innocent’s conviction never went to appeal because he could not afford it. A lawyer, who had offered to appeal on his behalf pro-bono, had a fatal accident on his way to file the court process and that was the end of any attempt to prove his innocence at a higher court.

Abandoned by family
For the 28 years Onwuche spent in prison, he was never visited by any of his family members or close relatives. His wife abandoned him immediately after his arrest and went away with their only son who was just an infant then. Fighting back tears as he recalled how his wife and her mother treated him, he said: “Immediately I was arrested and taken to the police station, she left me. She came to see me three times at the police station with her mother and that was all. I had a son with her and she took him away.” During the period of his incarceration, Onwuche lost his mother and his older siblings. His father died before he was imprisoned.

Scary nights in death row cell
When asked to describe what it is like to be in a death row cell, Onwuche paused for some seconds before saying: “I don’t wish my enemy the things I went through in death row cell. Because there was no gallows in Agodi prisons, after I was convicted, they took me to Ibara prisons where I spent years in a dark cell. The cell was dark throughout the day.” Pointing to his infected eyes which he struggled to open intermittently, he said: “I cannot see well now because of that dark experience. These two eyes are almost gone.”

Continuing with his narration about the death row cell, he said: “We stay days without seeing the light of day. Sometimes, we are about 56 condemned prisoners in one cell. They just pack us like Sardine. Bathing was also a problem. If you see one bottled water to bath with for a month, you will be very happy. The stench from the cell can kill a normal person.

“As a condemned prisoner, I don’t have any hope other than to wake up every day and pray. Fridays were usually the scariest days for me and others there because that was when the black-maria usually comes to take those to be executed. Once they come, our death row inmates will tell us ‘Omo chop your beans, time don come o’. In the morning of any execution day, you will hear warders barking like dogs during the parade. Immediately they open the cells, they will handcuff and leg-chain those to be executed and take them away.

Once any person has been taken away, the rest of us will be panicking because we don’t know who will be next. Immediately they take one or two persons out, the rest of us will start purging. We can go to the toilet several times out of the anxiety of who is next. In the morning you will hear something like ‘four blankets don lost’, meaning four inmates have been killed the previous night.”

Freedom at last!
Freedom was the last thing on Onwuche’s mind as he went through the ordeal of waiting endlessly for the hangman’s rope. The best he hoped for was to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment, unknown to him that the state government had already considered and granted his plea for freedom. Onwuche said he wept for joy when the news of his release came.

“From time to time, we usually wrote a letter of clemency but we are not even sure whether it got anywhere,” he said. Continuing his narration, he said:” The prison official collected money from us for the letter but often time we did’nt get the result. We just continued writing with the hope that one day, something would happen. We gave prison officers over N8, 000 for delivery. In the last week of November, I was shocked when my name was mentioned among those that have been granted amnesty. I cried because I know I didn’t commit the crime for which I was convicted.

Regrets
Onwuche concluded his story by pointing out that he has forgiven those who accused him wrongly. His only regret, however, is the pain and wasted years. “I don’t hold a grudge against those who accused me wrongly. What pained me most is that I had to go through all these because of N17,650. What is the value of that money now? If I had let go of that money without making any trouble, at least I would have been able to buy a bicycle, at least if I didn’t achieve much. Imagine spending 28 years because of N17, 560!’

Appeal for assistance
Appealing to Nigerians to help him restart his life, Onwuche said: “The reason many inmates go back to crime is that when they come out, nobody wants to assist them. When there is no job to do, how do you expect them to cope with their new life? Government should provide jobs for them. If I can get just an oven now, I will start baking and become useful to myself and my family. I can also fry buns and chin chin. I can make disinfectants and hair cream. I just need assistance to start a new life. I learned so many things while in prison from NGOs that come to talk to us. I learned baking and other handiwork. I acquired over 10 certificates while there.”

– by Henry Ojelu/Vanguard News Nigeria./The Eagle

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Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

Published

1 hour ago

December 22, 2024

Trends Admin

Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

Segun Olowookere, a man who was sentenced to death for stealing fowls in Osun State when he was 17, has recounted how the police tortured and gave him a cutlass used as an exhibit against him as a minor in court.

FIJ had earlier reported that Governor Ademola Adeleke planned to pardon Olowookere after news of how Justice Sakariya Oyejide Falola sentenced Olowookere and Morakinyo Sunday to death in 2014 broke out.

Olowookere was charged in court with conspiracy, armed robbery and stealing. It was on these grounds that Falola delivered his judgment.

Olowookere and Sunday spent some days at a police station in Okuku before their arraignment and conviction. Olowookere said that the police gave them one cutlass each while at the station for weeding the premises.

However, the two of them were later transferred to Osogbo, the state capital, with the cutlasses. These cutlasses were later presented before the judge as exhibits of an armed robbery offence, Olowookere told The Punch in an interview on Sunday.

HOW HE WAS ARRESTED

Now in a custodial centre working with a medical team, Olowookere said he gave himself up for the arrest in November 2010.

“I was at my father’s shop in Oyan after returning from school. My dad and I were discussing my university admission and suddenly, we heard gunshots, and everybody ran away except my dad and a few others,” he narrated.

“My father was taken to a police van where there were some children. I was peeping out and could hear and see what was going on. The police asked my dad where I was and he asked them what my offence was. When they couldn’t give him a satisfactory response, my father shouted at the top of his voice that I should run away because the police wanted to arrest me.

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“But I was wondering what my offence was. So, I came out and went to meet them. I was detained at the police post in Oyan and was taken to Okuku Divisional Police Headquarters the following day. I met the children who were in the police van when they came for me sitting on the ground and eating rice.”

THEY WERE GIVEN CUTLASSES

Olowookere recalled that the divisional police officer (DPO) heading the station at the time accused him of being a leader of an armed robbery gang consisting of teenage children.

Some days after his arrest, his parents were still making efforts to secure his bail. While this was ongoing, the police engaged them in labour, giving them a cutlass each to cut the grasses at the station.

“The DPO told me that one of the children confessed to stealing two broilers and some crates of eggs. I met the broilers and the eggs at the station,” he said.

“The children were eight in number. He told me the children said I was their gang leader, which I denied. The children he was talking about were around 12 and 13 years old, while I was 17 then. I told him I knew the children but I didn’t have anything to do with them other than greeting them in the community.

“I met Sunday Morakinyo at the station, and he told the police that he didn’t know me nor had anything to do with me. I don’t even know where he was arrested. All the children were released but Morakinyo and I were not.

“We were seriously tortured from the first day I got to the Okuku Police Station under the supervision of the DPO. The children who allegedly committed the crime were not beaten. He repeatedly asked me to admit and confess to a crime I didn’t commit.

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“After some days, we were given cutlasses to cut the grass at the police station premises despite having injuries on every part of our body as a result of the torture.”

BAIL SUM BEYOND HIS PARENTS

Olowookere’s father was asked to produce N30,000 for his bail, but his father could only raise N20,000, and the police would not cut down this financial bail demand.

His father then left the station, perhaps to gather the shortfall of N10,000. Before his father could return, the police had ferried them to Osogbo.

“My father could only raise N20,000 out of the N30,000 they demanded. The police rejected it and insisted on the N30,000,” Olowookere said.

“My dad left the station to look for the money. But before he returned the following day, we had been moved to the SARS office in Osogbo. The cutlasses that were given to me and Morakinyo to cut the grass were presented to SARS as exhibits and they were told we were armed robbers.

“After 17 days in the SARS cell, we were taken to a magistrate court and charged with robbery, and from there to the High Court, where we were sentenced to death.”

The poultry farm from which they were alleged to have stolen fowls belonged to one of his uncles.

Despite initially promising not to pursue the case against him, the uncle went on to testify in court against him.

“We are from the same Ajerotutu Compound in Oyan. He was summoned to a family meeting where he said I was not among those who stole the fowls, but my name was mentioned by the children who were arrested,” Olowookere explained.

“He told the family that he would discontinue the case. But he later came to court to testify against me.

“I never wrote any statement to the police. My parents never had a flat, not to mention a six-bedroom flat. I lived with my parents until I was arrested.”

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Asked why his lawyer didn’t object to the statement during the trial, Olowookere said, “I didn’t know anything, but I am sure I didn’t write any statement.”

SUNDAY SUFFERS MENTAL ILLNESS

As a result of the torture they received at the police station before arraignment, Sunday began to bleed from several parts of his body.

Eventually, this bleeding led to his becoming mentally ill, according to Olowookere.

“He is now a mad person. He is at Ibara Prison. He developed mental issues when we were tortured at the police station in Okuku and by the officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad. I am just lucky, and I believe God’s grace is over me,” he said.

“Morakinyo was bleeding from the anus, ears, nose and on the head. The police did not treat him despite that. I cleaned the cell every day because his blood stained the floor. He was bleeding for the entire six days we spent inside the Okuku police cell before we were transferred to the SARS cell in Osogbo.

“We spent 17 days with SARS and Morakinyo bled every day. Some of the SARS officers noticed that he was not mentally normal again but others thought he was pretending, and from there, he developed full mental issues.

“When we were remanded at Ilesa Custodial Centre, the warders tried to manage his mental health but they didn’t have the capacity. His condition then worsened. As I am talking to you, he doesn’t recognise anybody again. His mother has stopped checking up on him.”

Olowookere said he was hopeful that he would regain his freedom someday to pursue his academic studies and become useful to the world.

“I first enrolled in Yewa College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, after my sentence. It is my dream to study medicine, but it is not available at a college of education. I was later transferred to a maximum prison in 2016. But due to financial constraints, I couldn’t study my dream course,” he explained.

“However, I was encouraged to train under the medical practitioners in the prison. So, I applied and I was accepted into the medical line in 2017. Since then, I have been working with the nurses, pharmacists and doctors inside the prison.

“I believe I will be free one day, and when I regain my freedom, I will definitely go for medicine. I pray to God to set me free because I am innocent.

“I don’t know anything about the crime I am convicted for. I pray to God to give me the opportunity to prove my innocence to the world and be useful to society. I am not a criminal; I have never stolen anything in my life, not to talk of robbing somebody.”

Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

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Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

Published

1 hour ago

December 22, 2024

Trends Admin

Chairman of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo)

Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

Stakeholders under the Ijaw Youths Network (IYN) have alleged a well-coordinated international blackmail campaign against High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Chairman of Tantita Security Services; Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL); and Dr. Dennis Otuaro, Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

In a statement issued on Sunday by its President, Frank Ebikabo, and Secretary, Federal Ebiaridor, the IYN accused a cabal of oil thieves of sponsoring the campaign to undermine the successes of Tantita Security Services and other security outfits in combating oil theft.

The group specifically condemned a staged protest outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, describing it as a smear campaign filled with false criminal allegations against Tompolo, Kyari, and Otuaro.

The IYN called on the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and others entrusted with the nation’s security to ensure a thorough investigation of persons behind the blackmail and bring them to justice in the interest of national security.

The stakeholders also urged President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to be resolute in sustaining the reversal of the evils of oil theft against Nigeria and her citizens.

The IYN stressed that oil thieves and their operatives armed with billions of ill-gotten resources were funding the recurrent attacks on Tompolo, Kyari and Otuaro.

The youths insisted that a virulent cabal of oil thieves with a vast network across international boundaries was on the rampage to orchestrate the campaign targeting the economy of the country and its leadership.

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The IYN said that the oil thieves were pooling resources together with their international collaborators to undermine the President, national security and the nation’s economy.

The group said that it was not unexpected that the deadly cabal that almost ruined the economy of the country by stealing billions of petro dollars would not give up their lucrative crime without a fight.

The IYN said that the achievement of the Tinubu Administration which had been able to attain 1.8m barrels of crude oil per day, after serious efforts into the battle against oil thieves should be protected from such influential, deadly gang.

The IYN added some of those fighting Tompolo, Kyari and Otuaro were persons, who pressed to be appointed Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme without success.

The Ijaw youths groups said that the antecedents of Otuaro and his capacity to deepen consultations and sustenance of peace in the Niger Delta might be hurting those behind the campaign of calumny in the region.

The group called on all sister organizations in the Niger Delta to support the campaign against oil theft, Tantita Security Service Limited, the NNPCL and the PAP leadership.

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The group said: “We are shocked at the extent to which this deadly cabal of oil thieves can go to orchestrate a campaign of calumny against hardworking people carrying out their lawful responsibilities in the Niger Delta.

“Of course, nobody expects a group of extremely wealthy, connected and influential people who has been involved in oil theft, stealing billions for years to go away without resistance.

“The show of shame in front of the UN headquarters is a most reprehensible attack on the country image, the President, national security and our economy.

“The unpatriotic characters are conniving with enemies of Nigeria in their criminal bid to bring back the dark days of oil theft and its impact on the nation’s economy.

“We call on the President, to be firm in sustaining what is good for Nigeria. Tompolo, and Tantita have shown that it is not impossible to stop the menace of oil theft as shown by the daily production of oil to 1.8 million barrels per day,

“We also urge the Mr Kyari and Dr Otuaro to be firm in carrying out their official responsibilities to this great country. That oil thieves are focusing attacks on the, shows in clear terms that their actions are suffocating their evil activities in the region.”

Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

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NURTW scribe felicitates Nigerians on Xmas, urges caution

Published

7 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Trends Admin

NURTW scribe felicitates Nigerians on Xmas, urges caution

The General Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade Kayode Agbeyangi, has enjoined Nigerians to imbibe the virtues of peace, love and compassion as taught through the birth of Jesus Christ.

He stated this in his Christmas and end of the year goodwill message to felicitate members of the union and Nigerians in general.

Agbeyangi urged Nigerians to use the festive season to reflect on the values of love, compassion, and sacrifice that Jesus Christ embodied.

“This period is not for merry making alone; we should also spare time to reflect on the birth and life of Jesus Christ.

“His birth teaches humility, love compassion and sacrifice. As Nigerians, we must show love to our fellow county men. We must love our country. As Nigerians, we must be ready to make sacrifices for the nation.”

The NURTW scribe also used the opportunity to appeal to members of the union and other road users to always exercise caution and adhere to all safety protocols while travelling during the festive season.

“As we celebrate, let us not forget the importance of road safety. The roads can be treacherous, especially during the festive season.

“I urge our members and all road users to drive safely, avoid overspending, overtaking at dangerous bends and overloading, and be courteous to other road users,” he stated.

He also advised drivers that all their vehicle papers should be up to date to avoid embarrassment from law enforcement officers on the highways.

Comrade Agbeyangi prayed for a peaceful and joyous celebration, and wished members of the union and Nigerians, a happy prosperous New Year.