Olusola Adepetu, a native of Ondo State and renowned owner of a trado-medical clinic known as Olusola Naturalist Hospital, which used to be a delight of radio and television stations because of his strong advertisement strength, had been on death row for 26 years, following what was termed a miscarriage of justice.
And he would have spent the rest of his life on death row except his death warrant was signed, if not for the intervention of the prison ministry a nongovernmental body, known as the Centre for Justice, Mercy and Reconciliation (CHMR), led by a prison consultant, life coach and advocate for criminal justice reform in Nigeria, Pastor Hezekiah Deboboye Olujobi.
Getting freedom for Adepetu was not a stroll in the park or a journey of few months and it took the efforts of prominent Nigerians including the Late Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, former governor of Lagos State and Late Revd. Mrs. Tola Oyediran Nee Awolowo .
Adepetu lost 26 years of his life after he incarcerated at a period when his start was shining and he was on an upward rung of the ladder of success professionally.
According to the CJMR team, “the police conducted a comprehensive investigation and the defense attorney performed admirably. However, despite these efforts, the judge appeared to succumb to public pressure, resulting in Olusola Adepetu being wrongfully sentenced to death.”
At the time of his arrest, he was 34 years old and a father of four children though with a broken home. He was a socialite and prominent member of the society; special marshal of Federal Road Safety Commission and effective trado-medical practitioner renowned to have ability to cure all manner of ailments. But this fizzled out suddenly after he was alleged of killing his girlfriend.
His girlfriend was murdered and her body recovered three days later by the police at the Express way, Sanyo in Ibadan after which it was deposited at the mortuary in Adeoyo State Hospital. And while he said he was innocent, no other suspect was arrested as relatives who were in the shop of the girlfriend’s father said he was the one that came to pick the deceased and a bar man testified he saw them together on the same day.
And like all bad news, which spreads like wide fire, the same radio and television stations which are used to run his trado-medical adverts, announced his arrest. It became a celebrated case, making it easy for him to be consumed by public opinion and judgment.
And for a case that attracted so much public interest, the rumours were rife and it was difficult to separate facts from speculations and in the absence of no other suspect or contrary view, he was found guilty. And his fate was sealed even at appeal until the CJMR took it up when it found that there was a dissenting judgment in the appeal indicating no real evidence of his guilt or full proof that he committed the crime. There were countless applications and legwork by CJMR; until he regained his freedom after 26 years.
His is one of such cases of people wasting away in prison custody. According to Pastor Olujobi, there are many challenges facing the justice system and many causes of wrongful convictions.
He highlighted arbitrary arrest and detention as major factors for prison congestion, adding that “majority of those arrested and charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and other capital offenses such as rape, their convictions cannot be sustained at the end of the trial. The reason prison congestion remains a plague is because no one is probing the way suspects are arrested. To keep a suspect in detention for life, the police need to create prima facie evidence on the charge sheet for a capital offense.
“Many cases that went through trial and ended in discharge and acquittal after a long winding trial should have been recommended for no case to answer at the pre-trial. The reason for wrongful conviction in many cases is the inability of the judge to maintain neutrality. When such cases are given due attention at the Higher Court, the judgment will be upturned in favor of the accused.
“The question is how long would it take for someone to be proven guilty of the allegations of the crime leveled against him? Some are in awaiting trial for 9, 10, even 12 years without justice. Alas! The most youthful productive part of their lives has been wasted away using the law that is meant to protect them to destroy them,” he lamented.
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