Father Cries Out for Justice over Two Sons Wrongly Sentenced to Death

By Hezekiah Olujobi

“It is said that the judiciary is the last hope of a common man, but what happens when a common man cannot get justice? The purpose of seeking justice is forfeited.”

An Oshogbo High Court judge sentenced two brothers from Cotonou to death for armed robbery and murder. The judge admitted the confessional statement as the best evidence to convict without considering the circumstances that proved such evidence to be ridiculous, fabricated, and unjust. A police officer had taken money from the victim with the promise to apprehend the criminals and then presented the innocent brothers as the perpetrators of the crime.

Ignoring the evidence that proved their innocence added more pain to their existence and prolonged their journey for freedom through the rigors of the appeal process. This is indeed an obvious injustice. Even in the absence of strong evidence to convict these two brothers, the judge chose to send them to the gallows for execution, despite the concocted and manipulated confessional statement from a police officer who arrested the innocent individuals and presented them to the victim as the culprits.

With such allegations of heinous crimes against innocent people, our hope for justice hangs in the balance. Despite all the evidence made available to the Attorney General of the state, they still proceeded to prosecute the brothers, while the court set aside the evidence and held sacred the lies concocted by the SARS police officers.

Now that the judgment has been passed and a death sentence hangs over these poor individuals, what does the judgment entail, and what proof exists that they are innocent?

On November 15, 2017, the complaint in this case came from Oshogbo to the Adeniji Adele police station in Lagos State, where a particular police officer was informed about a robbery and murder incident that occurred on October 12, 2017, in Oshogbo, Osun State. The victim claimed he was robbed of his Hilux van at about 10:00 PM, and the armed robbers killed his wife. His wife was buried immediately according to Muslim rites.

The victim came with a photocopy of his vehicle particulars and a photograph of the deceased. Within a short period of seven days, on November 22, 2017, the police arrested the first defendant, who was tortured into confessing to the crime and implicating his elder brother as the major suspect. Three days after the arrest, the complainant was invited to see one of the alleged robbers, and he wrote his statement on November 25, 2017. Exactly two months after his report to the Lagos State police officer, the second defendant, the elder brother of the first defendant, was arrested.

Without any identification parade or any legitimate confessional statement, the two brothers, who share the same parents, were charged in court for armed robbery and murder. On November 10, 2020, the case opened for trial before the High Court of Justice, presided over by Hon. Justice A. O. Oyebiyi at the Oshogbo High Court of Justice. Three witnesses were called during the trial: the complainant and two police officers. On November 12, 2020, the two brothers were sentenced to death without any medical or police report certifying the death of the deceased before the court. No witnesses corroborated that such a crime actually took place on October 12, 2017. No police report established that such an incident occurred in Oshogbo on the said date at the said location.

The basis for conviction was that the court accepted the prosecution’s submission to convict the two brothers based on the confessional statement. During the trial, the first defendant explained how the police officer, Adeniyi Aina, who arrested him, sent for him through his boss, who brought him to do POP work in Oshogbo, tricking him into coming to Lagos. The first defendant stated before the court that the police officer had previously arrested him for a case of stealing in Oshogbo in 2016, where a thief broke into a house near where he was doing his POP work. He was detained and later reminded in Ilesha prison, where he sent for his boss, Earnest Carpo, and his elder brother, Monday Sode, who came from Bayelsa to stand as a second surety. The first defendant also indicated that PW2 was the police officer in charge of the previous case of stealing, and he jumped bail for the trial because he had no transport fare to attend court.

To establish the story, the Centre for Justice, Mercy, and Reconciliation (CJMR) applied for the certified true copy (CTC) of the charge sheet of the previous case, the enrollment order, and the bail bonds of the two sureties, which indicated the names of the elder brother, Monday Sode, and Ernest Carpo as the sureties in the case. The evidence of the second defendant during his defense was cogent and remained unshaken.

What evidence did the police officers present in this case regarding what led to the brothers’ arrest? PW2, Inspector Adeniyi Aina, testified before the court about how the complainant reported a case of armed robbery and murder to him in Lagos on November 15, 2017, and how he demanded the IMEI number of the phone with the network provider MTN, number 07031107798. The phone was found to be with the second defendant. He stated that he used a soft target, someone he used to call regularly, to link the first defendant to the case. The first defendant was eventually arrested at Barger Bus Stop in Lagos.

Unfortunately, the officer gave his evidence at a time when we took over the case from the lawyer who was previously handling it. The judge seemed desperate to rush the case and did not listen to our lawyer. The PW2 contradicted himself when he stated that the phone with the second defendant was not the stolen one. This raises questions about how he obtained the phone number he used to link the defendants to the crime.

Throughout the trial, the police officer never mentioned how he knew the two defendants. This shows how police can lie recklessly to destroy innocent lives. How did he arrest these two individuals and link them to the robbery and murder incident that occurred on October 12, 2017? He claimed, “I demanded the IMEI number of the phone with the network provider MTN, number 07031107798.” What a contradictory statement! The complainant testified during the trial that he did not know the serial number of his phone. If he reported that his phone was stolen and could not provide the receipt or the serial number, how could it be possible to track the phone? The officer stated that the SIM card had been removed and replaced with another MTN network provider.

Contrary to the evidence of PW2, PW3, CSP Omoyele Adekunle of Federal SARS, testified as follows:

“I am CSP Omoyele Adekunle, a police officer serving in the Osun State Command. On November 23, 2017, I was at Federal SARS, Lagos. I know the defendants very well. I was investigating a robbery/murder case transferred from ICP to my department, and I was detailed to investigate. We were informed of a murder. The vehicle was taken away, but the victim’s phone was left in the vehicle. It was the victim’s wife who was killed. They took the victim away towards Ikirun Road. He was stripped naked and pushed out of the vehicle. They escaped with the vehicle. He told us a phone was left in the vehicle. We got the number and sent for tracking. We knew it was then in Cotonou and placed an alert on it. When the number rang, we tracked it to Ikeja. The first defendant was arrested with the phone. He initially denied involvement but later confessed after some arrests were made connecting him to the phone. It was when he saw the persons arrested that he opened up. He had earlier given the phone to someone among those arrested. He then confessed to the crime. During the investigation, he mentioned the second defendant, stating that they had come together to perpetrate the crime.”

The victim was invited and identified both defendants and the phone as the one taken during the robbery. However, according to the statement made by the victim on November 25, 2017, he said the incident happened at about 10:00 PM, and there was no electricity. The criminals emerged from the corner of his shop and slapped him three times. How could he possibly identify the criminals at that time of night?

In the evidence provided by PW3, CSP Omoyele stated that the phone was lost on the date of the incident. He mentioned that Ernest Albert, from the tracking analysis, changed the SIM card in the phone. It must be noted that CSP Omoyele indicated that the phone was recovered from Ernest Albert, who inserted his SIM into the stolen phone.

During cross-examination, it was revealed that the defendants were not arrested at the scene. The case was reported to the police after a few months. The complainant stated that he would identify those who attacked him if he saw them. The investigation began by tracking the lost IMEI number of the phone. The defendant was using the phone to call, and the phone tracked was with the defendant at the time of tracking. However, no phone was tendered in this case.

These are just a few inconsistencies in this trial.

Imole Sode and Monday are two brothers from the same parents. Their parents came to Nigeria from Cotonou, and they were seven children born to their parents. Monday enrolled his brother in a POP apprenticeship in Lagos. Imole and his master got a POP job in Oshogbo on a contract basis. Along the line, a thief broke into a nearby house, and he was arrested by police officer Adeniyi Aina. He was on bail for that offense when he jumped bail for the case.

On October 12, 2017, there was a robbery and murder in Oshogbo, and the case was transferred to SCID Oshogbo, where Inspector Adeyemi Aina was assigned to investigate. According to the complainant, the officer collected a significant amount of money from him with the promise to recover his vehicle and apprehend the culprits. Shortly after this incident, Inspector Adeniyi Aina was transferred to Federal SARS Adeniji Adele. On November 15, 2017, the complainant traced the police officer to Lagos to follow up on his case.

The officer devised a scheme. What should he do to please the victim? He sent for the one who jumped bail and his brother, shot them in the legs, and coerced the younger brother into writing statements to implicate himself in the robbery and murder. His elder brother denied any knowledge of the crime, as he was based in Bayelsa and had never been to Oshogbo before.

Eventually, they were sentenced to death by hanging. Presently, the two brothers are on death row, waiting for execution for a crime they knew nothing about.

—

The case of the two brothers exemplifies a series of inconsistencies and contradictions that point to a miscarriage of justice. From the lack of corroborative evidence and identification issues to coerced confessions and police misconduct, the narrative is riddled with flaws that undermine the legitimacy of the conviction.

This is another journey to the Court of Appeal and the Appeal process is not easy. The cost of justice is very expensive and long process. Who pay for it

An Oshogbo High Court judge sentenced two brothers from Cotonou to death for armed robbery and murder. The judge admitted the confessional statement as the best evidence to convict without considering the circumstances that proved such evidence to be ridiculous, fabricated, and unjust. A police officer had taken money from the victim with the promise to apprehend the criminals and then presented the innocent brothers as the perpetrators of the crime.

Ignoring the evidence that proved their innocence added more pain to their existence and prolonged their journey for freedom through the rigors of the appeal process. This is indeed an obvious injustice. Even in the absence of strong evidence to convict these two brothers, the judge chose to send them to the gallows for execution, despite the concocted and manipulated confessional statement from a police officer who arrested the innocent individuals and presented them to the victim as the culprits.

With such allegations of heinous crimes against innocent people, our hope for justice hangs in the balance. Despite all the evidence made available to the Attorney General of the state, they still proceeded to prosecute the brothers, while the court set aside the evidence and held sacred the lies concocted by the SARS police officers.

Now that the judgment has been passed and a death sentence hangs over these poor individuals, what does the judgment entail, and what proof exists that they are innocent?

On November 15, 2017, the complaint in this case came from Oshogbo to the Adeniji Adele police station in Lagos State, where a particular police officer was informed about a robbery and murder incident that occurred on October 12, 2017, in Oshogbo, Osun State. The victim claimed he was robbed of his Hilux van at about 10:00 PM, and the armed robbers killed his wife. His wife was buried immediately according to Muslim rites.

The victim came with a photocopy of his vehicle particulars and a photograph of the deceased. Within a short period of seven days, on November 22, 2017, the police arrested the first defendant, who was tortured into confessing to the crime and implicating his elder brother as the major suspect. Three days after the arrest, the complainant was invited to see one of the alleged robbers, and he wrote his statement on November 25, 2017. Exactly two months after his report to the Lagos State police officer, the second defendant, the elder brother of the first defendant, was arrested.

Without any identification parade or any legitimate confessional statement, the two brothers, who share the same parents, were charged in court for armed robbery and murder. On November 10, 2020, the case opened for trial before the High Court of Justice, presided over by Hon. Justice A. O. Oyebiyi at the Oshogbo High Court of Justice. Three witnesses were called during the trial: the complainant and two police officers. On November 12, 2020, the two brothers were sentenced to death without any medical or police report certifying the death of the deceased before the court. No witnesses corroborated that such a crime actually took place on October 12, 2017. No police report established that such an incident occurred in Oshogbo on the said date at the said location.

The basis for conviction was that the court accepted the prosecution’s submission to convict the two brothers based on the confessional statement. During the trial, the first defendant explained how the police officer, Adeniyi Aina, who arrested him, sent for him through his boss, who brought him to do POP work in Oshogbo, tricking him into coming to Lagos. The first defendant stated before the court that the police officer had previously arrested him for a case of stealing in Oshogbo in 2016, where a thief broke into a house near where he was doing his POP work. He was detained and later reminded in Ilesha prison, where he sent for his boss, Earnest Carpo, and his elder brother, Monday Sode, who came from Bayelsa to stand as a second surety. The first defendant also indicated that PW2 was the police officer in charge of the previous case of stealing, and he jumped bail for the trial because he had no transport fare to attend court.

To establish the story, the Centre for Justice, Mercy, and Reconciliation (CJMR) applied for the certified true copy (CTC) of the charge sheet of the previous case, the enrollment order, and the bail bonds of the two sureties, which indicated the names of the elder brother, Monday Sode, and Ernest Carpo as the sureties in the case. The evidence of the second defendant during his defense was cogent and remained unshaken.

What evidence did the police officers present in this case regarding what led to the brothers’ arrest? PW2, Inspector Adeniyi Aina, testified before the court about how the complainant reported a case of armed robbery and murder to him in Lagos on November 15, 2017, and how he demanded the IMEI number of the phone with the network provider MTN, number 07031107798. The phone was found to be with the second defendant. He stated that he used a soft target, someone he used to call regularly, to link the first defendant to the case. The first defendant was eventually arrested at Barger Bus Stop in Lagos.

Unfortunately, the officer gave his evidence at a time when we took over the case from the lawyer who was previously handling it. The judge seemed desperate to rush the case and did not listen to our lawyer. The PW2 contradicted himself when he stated that the phone with the second defendant was not the stolen one. This raises questions about how he obtained the phone number he used to link the defendants to the crime.

Throughout the trial, the police officer never mentioned how he knew the two defendants. This shows how police can lie recklessly to destroy innocent lives. How did he arrest these two individuals and link them to the robbery and murder incident that occurred on October 12, 2017? He claimed, “I demanded the IMEI number of the phone with the network provider MTN, number 07031107798.” What a contradictory statement! The complainant testified during the trial that he did not know the serial number of his phone. If he reported that his phone was stolen and could not provide the receipt or the serial number, how could it be possible to track the phone? The officer stated that the SIM card had been removed and replaced with another MTN network provider.

Contrary to the evidence of PW2, PW3, CSP Omoyele Adekunle of Federal SARS, testified as follows:

“I am CSP Omoyele Adekunle, a police officer serving in the Osun State Command. On November 23, 2017, I was at Federal SARS, Lagos. I know the defendants very well. I was investigating a robbery/murder case transferred from ICP to my department, and I was detailed to investigate. We were informed of a murder. The vehicle was taken away, but the victim’s phone was left in the vehicle. It was the victim’s wife who was killed. They took the victim away towards Ikirun Road. He was stripped naked and pushed out of the vehicle. They escaped with the vehicle. He told us a phone was left in the vehicle. We got the number and sent for tracking. We knew it was then in Cotonou and placed an alert on it. When the number rang, we tracked it to Ikeja. The first defendant was arrested with the phone. He initially denied involvement but later confessed after some arrests were made connecting him to the phone. It was when he saw the persons arrested that he opened up. He had earlier given the phone to someone among those arrested. He then confessed to the crime. During the investigation, he mentioned the second defendant, stating that they had come together to perpetrate the crime.”

The victim was invited and identified both defendants and the phone as the one taken during the robbery. However, according to the statement made by the victim on November 25, 2017, he said the incident happened at about 10:00 PM, and there was no electricity. The criminals emerged from the corner of his shop and slapped him three times. How could he possibly identify the criminals at that time of night?

In the evidence provided by PW3, CSP Omoyele stated that the phone was lost on the date of the incident. He mentioned that Ernest Albert, from the tracking analysis, changed the SIM card in the phone. It must be noted that CSP Omoyele indicated that the phone was recovered from Ernest Albert, who inserted his SIM into the stolen phone.

During cross-examination, it was revealed that the defendants were not arrested at the scene. The case was reported to the police after a few months. The complainant stated that he would identify those who attacked him if he saw them. The investigation began by tracking the lost IMEI number of the phone. The defendant was using the phone to call, and the phone tracked was with the defendant at the time of tracking. However, no phone was tendered in this case.

These are just a few inconsistencies in this trial.

Imole Sode and Monday are two brothers from the same parents. Their parents came to Nigeria from Cotonou, and they were seven children born to their parents. Monday enrolled his brother in a POP apprenticeship in Lagos. Imole and his master got a POP job in Oshogbo on a contract basis. Along the line, a thief broke into a nearby house, and he was arrested by police officer Adeniyi Aina. He was on bail for that offense when he jumped bail for the case.

On October 12, 2017, there was a robbery and murder in Oshogbo, and the case was transferred to SCID Oshogbo, where Inspector Adeyemi Aina was assigned to investigate. According to the complainant, the officer collected a significant amount of money from him with the promise to recover his vehicle and apprehend the culprits. Shortly after this incident, Inspector Adeniyi Aina was transferred to Federal SARS Adeniji Adele. On November 15, 2017, the complainant traced the police officer to Lagos to follow up on his case.

The officer devised a scheme. What should he do to please the victim? He sent for the one who jumped bail and his brother, shot them in the legs, and coerced the younger brother into writing statements to implicate himself in thethe robbery and murder. His elder brother denied any knowledge of the crime, as he was based in Bayelsa and had never been to Oshogbo before.

Eventually, they were sentenced to death by hanging. Presently, the two brothers are on death row, waiting for execution for a crime they knew nothing about.

—

The case of the two brothers exemplifies a series of inconsistencies and contradictions that point to a miscarriage of justice. From the lack of corroborative evidence and identification issues to coerced confessions and police misconduct, the narrative is riddled with flaws that undermine the legitimacy of the conviction.

This is another journey to the Court of Appeal and the Appeal process is not easy. The cost of justice is very expensive and long process. Who pay for it

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Hezekiah Olujobi is the Executive Director, CJMR