By our Reporter
The Ogun State government on Wednesday faulted a publication claiming that one Ogbojionu Ogbonna, who was recently released from prison after many years, was wrongfully imprisoned for over two decades for merely buying a stolen generator.
The publication said that the real thief was one Segun Ajibade, who was pardoned in 2016, leaving Ogbonna to suffer for nine more years.
The government, in a statement signed by the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Mr Oluwasina Ogungbade, SAN, has, however, described the entire narrative of this publication as fabricated and tissue of lies.
The government said that Ogbonna was convicted to death for armed robbery on January 14, 2003, by the Ogun State High Court, but his death sentence was converted to a life imprisonment in June 2021 by Governor Dapo Abiodun in exercise of the prerogative of mercy.
The statement stated further that luck also smiled on the ex-convict when he was a beneficiary of the most recent prerogative of mercy exercised by the Governor to commemorate Democracy Day 2025.
The prerogative of mercy is said to be a constitutional power vested in the president and state governors and often expressed based on advice from the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of mercy chaired by the Attorney-General and the Commissioner for Justice.
Explaining the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of the ex-convict, Ogungbade stated that Ogbonna did not “merely buy a stolen generator” and that, indeed, there is no evidence to date that he ever bought the generator involved in this case.
He said that “The facts are that around 10:00 pm on 3 October 2000, a gang of armed robbers attacked the ELF petrol station along Abeokuta-Lagos road and stole a 10 KVA Lister generator.
“The armed robbers overpowered and detained the two guards at the fuel station. They hit one guard, Yusuf Akanni, with an iron rod on his head and on his leg, breaking his femur.
“They hit the second guard, Moses Bankole, on the head with an iron rod as well, then they bound both guards.
“Moses Bankole died on the spot, while bound, while Ogbonna and the other armed robbers made away with the Lister generator.
” Yusuf Akanni, the surviving guard, was the first prosecution witness for Ogun State.
“Ogbonna was a generator technician, so he was the robber who specifically loosened the generator from where it was secured in the ELF filling station.
“At 2:30 am, a few days later, around Toll Gate, Ota, the police randomly stopped a vehicle which was loaded with firewood and pure water bags that had been used to conceal a big generator.
The statement stated further that luck also smiled on the ex-convict when he was a beneficiary of the most recent prerogative of mercy exercised by the Governor to commemorate Democracy Day 2025.
The prerogative of mercy is said to be a constitutional power vested in the president and state governors and often expressed based on advice from the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of mercy chaired by the Attorney-General and the Commissioner for Justice.
Explaining the circumstances surrounding the incarceration of the ex-convict, Ogungbade stated that Ogbonna did not “merely buy a stolen generator” and that, indeed, there is no evidence to date that he ever bought the generator involved in this case.
He said that “The facts are that around 10:00 pm on 3 October 2000, a gang of armed robbers attacked the ELF petrol station along Abeokuta-Lagos road and stole a 10 KVA Lister generator.
“The armed robbers overpowered and detained the two guards at the fuel station. They hit one guard, Yusuf Akanni, with an iron rod on his head and on his leg, breaking his femur.
“They hit the second guard, Moses Bankole, on the head with an iron rod as well, then they bound both guards.
“Moses Bankole died on the spot, while bound, while Ogbonna and the other armed robbers made away with the Lister generator.
” Yusuf Akanni, the surviving guard, was the first prosecution witness for Ogun State.
“Ogbonna was a generator technician, so he was the robber who specifically loosened the generator from where it was secured in the ELF filling station.
“At 2:30 am, a few days later, around Toll Gate, Ota, the police randomly stopped a vehicle which was loaded with firewood and pure water bags that had been used to conceal a big generator.
“That generator turned out to be the same generator stolen from ELF. Ogbonna was in the vehicle alongside the vehicle’s driver (Sunday Oloyede) and one Kolawole Oladeji.
“When confronted by the Police, none of them could produce a receipt for the generator, so the police decided to impound the vehicle and arrest its occupants.
” As the police were planning to move the vehicle to the station, the driver and Kolawole Oladeji zoomed off with the vehicle, leaving Ogbonna behind.
“Ogbonna was detained in one of the cells at Toll Gate, but before morning, Ogbonna escaped by breaking the asbestos in the cell’s ceiling.
“However, by that time, the Police had already recorded the vehicle’s registration number.
“Investigations at the Alausa licensing office disclosed the owner of the vehicle who presented his four drivers to the police.
“Sunday Oloyede turned out to be one of the truck owner’s drivers, and he was arrested.
” He led the Police to Kolawole Oladeji and Segun Ajibade. The three then led the police to Ogbonna, who was arrested, but by then had already sold the generator.
“Ogbonna led the police to the person he sold the generator to, one Ali Rihan, who released the generator back to the police and testified against Ogbonna and the others, as the eleventh prosecution witness.
“Based on these events, these defendants, including Ogbonna, confessed to how they had planned the whole robbery.
“Ogbonna made two confessional statements in two different Police stations; they were admitted as Exhibits K and B, without objection as to coercion.
“The prosecution called eleven witnesses in all, but Ogbonna and his co-defendants did not call any witnesses. Instead, they chose to rest their case on that of the prosecution.
“Under the law, this meant that they agreed with the facts narrated by the prosecution but did not believe it was enough to convict them. However, the court thought otherwise and convicted them”.
The government said that the facts of the case completely dispel all the lies that Ogbonna and his packagers are currently circulating.
The statement noted that Ogbonna participated in the armed robbery and in transporting the generator by the cover of night, hidden under pure water bags and firewood, whereas nobody carrying property they believed to be theirs would hide it in that manner.
The government said that “Ogbonna fled lawful detention. Ogbonna, also, after having seen the driver run away from the police with the generator, still proceeded to reunite with that same driver and still sell the generator without regard to the driver’s suspicious conduct.
“Ogbonna was an integral part of the armed robbery. If Ogbonna truly owned the generator, he would have presented a receipt or any evidence of purchase to the Police at the checkpoint or his trial.
“Ogbonna knew the value and status of a receipt, because he issued Ali Rihan a receipt after selling the generator to Ali. If Ogbonna was truly tortured in detention to confess, what is his explanation for not objecting to the confessional statement at trial?
“How does he explain his legal strategy of calling no witnesses? Why did he not bring any witnesses who knew that he owned the generator, who knew his lawful source of living, or who sold him the generator? The truth is that all these did not exist”.
The statement added that, “Ogbonna rested his case on the prosecution’s case.
“He did not call any witness, and he did not tender any evidence.
“All that he is saying today was available to be said at his trial, and he voluntarily said nothing.
“As Justice Oputa said in the 1988 case of N M Ali & Amor. v. The State,’if the prosecution rests and refuses to put an accused person into the witness box to dispose of his own version of the events, then…
“The court will not be expected to speculate on what the accused might have said if he testified”.
” Ogbonna could have provided evidence to defend himself, and he did not.
“Without that evidence, the Judge was right to convict him, and my Office was correct, even obligated to prosecute him.
“The prerogative of mercy is not a right. Nobody is entitled to it.
“And it is not automatically extended to convicts merely because they have been in prison for long periods.
“The prerogative is granted entirely at the Governor’s discretion, considering the nature of the convict’s offence, the convict’s assessed tendency to reoffend, the convict’s ability to reintegrate into society, and the convict’s reformation demonstrated most importantly by his remorse and regret.
“If, as the viral reports now claim, Segun Ajibade has truly led a quiet life since his release, it likely suggests genuine remorse for his crimes and his gratitude for his freedom.
“This is the exact opposite of Ogbonna’s intransigence today and could explain why Ogbonna was not considered for release when Segun was.
“Ogbonna’s crime hobbled a business, terrorised Akanni Yusuf, and killed Moses Bankole.
“These victims or their relations remain today, and attempts to sanitise Ogbonna’s conduct with falsehoods do fresh injustice to the victims.
“Those who, in a misguided quest for justice, are recreating Ogbonna as a victim will do well to remember Moses Bankole, the true and irredeemable victim of Ogbonna’s crime.
“If Ogbonna is truly reformed, he should silently and gratefully enjoy his freedom and pursue honest pursuits. Presently, his honesty is highly doubtful, and the world is hereby notified.”
