The report that Osun State High Court sentenced two fowl thieves, one of who was then a 17-year-old, Olowookere Segun,
to death, has drawn the reaction of the court.
A statement titled, “Setting the Record Straight,” issued by the registrar of the State High Court, Omisade F. I., on December 20, 2024, dismissed claims that the convicts were sentenced for stealing a fowl.
In it, the court said that the report in circulation is a misrepresention of the fact.
Setting the record straight it wrote: “The succinct fact of this case was that the boy, Olowookere, and one other person, Morakinyo Sunday, were going about in Oyan town and its neighbourhood robbing innocent and unsuspecting people at gunpoint.
“Luck ran out on them in April 2010 when they were caught in action while robbing a poultry. Arms were recovered from them. They equally confessed to committing several armed robberies.
“The facts of the case have been distorted and maliciously misrepresented to the generality of the people. What has been laid before the public domain is that this boy was convicted and sentenced to death for stealing one fowl.
“An educated person does not need to be a lawyer before being well informed to know as a fact that a person cannot be sentenced to death for stealing a fowl, not even N1bn, without being armed at the time of committing the crime.”
It added: “The said Olowookere, the first accused person in suit No. HKK/2/2012, was 17 years old at the time of the trial, which has been blown out of proportion and is nothing but nauseating falsehood.
“He was in fact 17 years old at the time he was arrested and made to stand trial. His extrajudicial statement and the information upon which they were tried attest to this. The second accused person, Morakinyo, was 18 years old as at that time.
“What is more, his age or that of the second accused person was never an issue before the court at any stage of the trial. It is, therefore, a desperate design to whip up underserved sentiment.”
Continued: “The entire scenario woven around this case has been skewed to malign the personality of the trial judge and denigrate the Osun State High Court as an institution.
“The trial judge, in His Lordship’s characteristic magnanimity, large heart, and fatherly disposition, did what the law prescribed and went further to recommend them for the mercy of the governor.”
