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Condemned to death, found innocent after 24-years in jail – Olatunji’s story

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After spending 24 years in prison, a certain Olaide Olatunji has been declared innocent.

Olatunji who was condemned to death has narrated how he was wrongly arrested, after being tortured and beaten by the police.

Sharing his experience with the  Joint Legal Action Aids after his release from prison, Olatunji recounts how he was falsely accused of conspiracy to commit murder and thrown in jail.

As narrated by him:

HOW IT STARTED.

I trained as a photographer but back in the 80s I didn’t have enough photography work to sustain me so I worked with my father who traded in cattle. My father was an old man so I joined him and I used to go to the bush to buy the animals. I was married with two sons….

That year, as the time for the Ileya Festival drew closer, we were going to supply some companies with cattle so I had to go and buy them from Niger state. He listed all the things that I was going to buy – cows, rams and goats. I left Lagos on the 30th of May, 1988 to Gwari in Niger state. I had to go inside the bush to select the animals I wanted so that I would get a trailer to convey them to Lagos.

THE ARREST.

Because of the language barrier, I needed an interpreter for the negotiations. We were in the bush when some policemen came and asked me if I was a visitor. I said yes, I was a visitor that I had been coming to the village for many years. The man said they were looking for people who ran into the bush.

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I said I didn’t know anything about it that I was selecting rams there. Then they arrested me and took me to the police station even though the interpreter told them I had been coming to the village for some time.

The next day, the 1st of June, they said the case could not be handled at that station and it was transferred to the State CID at Niger. From there they transferred me to Ilorin in Kwara state. All the while, I never knew what they were accusing me of. After a week, some policemen came from Lagos, they said they were from the Anti-Terrorist squad and they conveyed me and some people that were arrested with me to Lagos.

I was with N325,000 cash which I wanted to use to buy cows at Niger. The money followed me up to Ilorin but when we got to Lagos, I didn’t hear anything about the money again. The Police men did not give me or my family members.

PAIN, TORTURE AND TRIAL

They took me to Adeniji Adele Police Station, Lagos. That was when they started giving me hell. They hung me, beat and tortured me. That was the day I knew they were accusing me of murder. They said somebody was killed in Lagos and his car was snatched and they later found the car around the village where I was in Gwari.

The policemen said the people fled into the bush that was why they were looking for visitors around that area. All the while I had no idea why I had been arrested. The confessional statement in my case file, they wrote it themselves and forced me to sign. After that they transferred me to Ikoyi Prison and that was where they resumed another round of torture.

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I spent almost 9 months there before they took me to court with four other men. I didn’t even know those men. They charged us all for conspiracy to murder. My lawyer told me to plead ‘Not Guilty’ so I did and from there they took me to Kirikiri Medium Security Prison.

SENTENCED TO DEATH

Four months later, they said we had a case to answer at Apapa Court. Osibodu Jaydis Babajide after reading the charges, they took us back to Ikoyi Prisons.The trial started in 1989 and it ran on for 6 years.

On February 15, 1995, Justice Da Silva sentenced me to death. I told the judge that day, “You have condemned me, but God did not condemn me.” My Mum, my Dad, my children and family members were in the court that day. I was transferred to the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison.

LIFE AS A MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH.

They put me in a condemned cell. It was hell on earth. They kept 9 of us in a very small room. That was where we took our bath, ate, slept, defecated and eased ourselves. There were no beds. Who would give us beds? By law, they don’t let any condemned man come out. But sometimes, they let us out for about one hour in a day. Life in the prison was very rough. There, I hardly slept. The prison authorities gave us food but not good food.

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In the condemned prisoners cell, you wouldn’t know which day they will call you and just execute you. In 1996, I can’t remember the date, we were 9 in the cell. They took 8 of them out, they never brought them back. When they call your name like that, you know what will happen. They executed all of them.

Then, when we want to communicate with our family or our lawyers, we go to the welfare unit and write a letter. We must wear our blue uniform and they’ll put handcuffs and chains on our legs. Any time we wanted to come out to welfare, or clinic or for visitation, they’ll put the handcuffs on us. That was until 2002 when we protested and they stopped it.

I have been hearing of what has been happening in Nigeria. I have been hearing of Boko Haram, of Obasanjo, of Goodluck Jonathan. All the information we have there is carried over information, you can’t get the exact information. It is what they say to us that we will believe.

My brothers used to visit me. My parents died when I was in prison and they told me. I felt bad but I could not do anything. I just prayed to God not to let me die in prison.

Around the millennium time, my family members brought a phone to me at the prison but it was not approved. I had to sneak it in and we hide to use it. If the prison wardens catch anyone with a phone, they will send the person to prison inside prison. Real torture.

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