Heeding Falana’s pitch, Adeleke exercises prerogative of mercy
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke has pardoned both youths on death row for stealing a fowl, Segun Olowookere and Sunday Morakinyo, not Olowookere alone as originally announced.
Adeleke’s gesture is in agreement with the plea made last weekend by human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN for both of them to be pardoned partly because they were unlawfully convicted anyway.
Olowookere, who was 17 at the time of his arrest in November 2010, was convicted and sentenced to death by an Osun State High Court on December 17, 2014, for conspiracy to commit armed robbery, robbery, and stealing.
His case gained public attention recently after his mother appeared on a podcast, pleading for intervention in the plight of her son who police originally arrested for allegedly stealing a fowl before other counts were added to the charge sheet.
The story went viral on social media, prompting Adeleke to direct the state’s Attorney General to begin the process for his pardon.
A statement Adeleke issued on Thursday through his spokesperson Olawale Rasheed announced the pardon of Olowookere, Morakinyo, and 51 other inmates.
“In line with the recommendations of the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, Governor Ademola Adeleke has exercised the prerogative of mercy towards 53 convicts serving various convictions within the Nigerian Correctional Service,” the statement said.
“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.
“Convict recommended for outright pardon for good conduct (capital offences) are: Sunday Morakinyo, Segun Olowookere, Tunde Olapade and Demola Odeyemi.”
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Falana urges Adeleke to pardon both fowl theft death convicts, not just one of them
