By Femi Falana, SAN
In an attempt to justify the conviction and death sentence passed on Olowokere Segun by the Osun State High Court, the learned trial judge, Falola J. has said that it was a case of armed robbery and not a theft of fowl as widely reported in the social media.
The judge pointed out that the convict was found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to death. However, on the grounds of the young age of the convict and the circumstances of the case, the judge recommended to the Governor to commute the death penalty to life imprisonment.
We submit that the trial, conviction, and death sentence passed on Olowokere Segun were illegal, null and void in every material particular. Since it was not denied that Olowokere was 17 years old at the time of his trial, the Osun State High Court lacked the jurisdictional competence to have tried him. The case ought to have been instituted in the Osun State Family Court which is exclusively empowered to exercise jurisdiction in any criminal proceeding involving or relating to any penalty, forfeiture, punishment or other liability in respect of an offence committed by a child, against a child or the interest of a child.
Even if a child is convinced and found guilty of armed robbery, he or she shall not be ordered to be (a) imprisoned; or (b) subjected to corporal punishment or © subjected to the death penalty or, have the death penalty recorded against him. In other words, the Family Court or any court in Osun State is prohibited from imposing the death penalty on any person under 18 years.
Even before the enactment of the Child’s Rights Law, it was illegal to pass the death sentence on a 17-year-old person under section 420 of the Osun State Criminal Procedure Law. It was in realisation of the provision of that law that the learned trial judge recommended to the Governor of Osun State to grant clemency to Olowokere Segun based on mitigating factors, such as age and first-offender status.
But probably due to poverty and ignorance, the family of Olowokere neither appealed against the judgment nor pursued the recommendation of clemency made by the trial judge. Hence, the young convict had been on death row at the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre for the past 10 years.
Since the trial, conviction and death sentence passed on Olowokere Segun cannot be justified in law, Governor Ademola Adeleke has rightly granted him full pardon in exercise of the prerogative of mercy conferred on him by section 214 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The case of Olowokere Segun is a sad reminder of the case of the 12 young persons who were convicted and sentenced to death for armed robbery in Lagos in 1989. The judgment was full of errors of mistrial. In particular, the convicts were below the age of 16 years and did not speak a common language. The charge of conspiracy to commit robbery was not proved as the convicts could only express themselves in Hausa, Yoruba and Ewe languages.
Curiously, the tribunal ordered the deportation of two Ghanaians among the convicts, thereby sparing their lives. Even though the Armed Robbery and Firearms Decree ousted the jurisdiction of the courts, we challenged the human right of the convicted Nigerians to freedom from discrimination under Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
The Lagos State High Court granted our application for an injunction restraining the Lagos State military Governor from executing the convicts pending the determination of the substantive application. Before the substantive case was heard, the military junta had relinquished power. Based on the representation made on behalf of the convicts by our law firm, Governor Michael Otedola committed their death sentence to 10 years imprisonment. A few months later, the Governor granted them full pardon on account of their good behaviour.
Happily, Governor Otedola ensured that the ex-convicts were rehabilitated upon their release from prison custody. While appreciating the decision of Governor Adeleke to grant pardon to Olowokere Segun, we are compelled to call on the Osun State Government to facilitate his full integration into the society.
Femi Falana SAN, 19th December 2024.
