Segun Olowookere, an Osun State resident who received a death sentence for stealing a chicken and eggs in 2010, has been released from jail.
This followed a decision by Ademola Adeleke, the governor of Osun, to pardon Olowookere and 52 other convicts on December 26.
Olowookere was 17 in 2010 when he was arrested for stealing poultry from a relative’s house in Okuku, a town in Osun.
When the matter was brought before the court, he was charged with armed robbery for allegedly “perpetrating the crime with a wooden gun and a machete”.
Sunday Morakinyo, an alleged accomplice, was also arrested alongside Olowookere at the time.
Olowookere and Morakinyo spent some days at a police station in Okuku before their arraignment and conviction.
Olowookere said he and Morakinyo were handed cutlasses and given the task of weeding the premises while at the station.
They were later transferred to Osogbo, the state capital, with the cutlasses.
These cutlasses were later presented before Justice Sakariya Oyejide Falola, the judge who presided over the matter, as exhibits of an armed robbery offence.
Olowookere and Morakinyo would later be sentenced to death by hanging in 2014.
@FIJ
