I spent 26 years in jail for fighting mechanic – Ex-prisoner
Jide Odusanya
Samson Folarin
A former inmate of the Kirikiri Maximum
Prison, Jide Odusanya, has asked people to control their tempers, saying
anger landed him in prison.
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The Sagamu, Ogun State indigene, who
spent 26 years in three different prisons in the country before he was
pardoned by the Lagos State Government, said a fight over water spillage
destroyed his dream of becoming a bank manager.
He spoke on Tuesday at a conference
organised by the Prison and Hospital Ministry of the Redeemed Christian
Church of God at the Ogun Province 4 Headquarters, Redemption Camp, Ogun
State.
Odusanya had testified along with two
others at the event, tagged, ‘From Hopelessness to Glory,’ saying he was
sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.
The 57-year-old, who is unmarried, said
his ordeal started in June 1991 when he fought a mechanic in the
Ebute-Meta area of Lagos State where he lived with his parents.
He said, “The mechanic usually came to
fetch water in my father’s house and I told him to always lock the tap
when he was done. This was because my room’s window was close to the tap
and when water spilled on the floor, it bred mosquitoes which entered
my room.
“But that day, he asked why I would talk
to him in such a manner. He pushed me. I was angry and slapped him,
which started a fight. The younger brother of one of my friends came to
visit me that period.
“Instead of separating the fight, the
boy took a flaming wood and smashed it on the mechanic’s head. The
mechanic hit his head on the ground and sustained some injuries. The boy
and I were arrested and detained at the Iponri Police Station for
causing grievous bodily harm.
“The injured mechanic’s uncle, who was
an army officer, said he was interested in the case. It was during the
military regime. We were transferred to the State Criminal Investigation
and Intelligence Department, Yaba.”
Odusanya said at the SCIID, the police
changed the case to armed robbery after the Investigating Police Officer
visited his house and found a knife which he used to cut loaves of
bread.
He noted that he and the co-accused were
arraigned for armed robbery in a magistrate court and were remanded in
the Ikoyi Prison, where they spent seven years without trial.
“After seven years, legal advice said I
had a case to answer, while the boy was discharged and acquitted. I was
moved from the Ikoyi Prison to the Kirikiri Maximum Prison.
“I was taken to a court at Igbosere
where I was sentenced to death based on the knife evidence. I was on
death row for three years before former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu,
converted it to life imprisonment on December 31, 2001.
“I spent 16 years in life imprisonment.
At some points, I was taken to the Ibara Prison in Ogun State and would
have been released by the then Governor of the state, Gbenga Daniel, who
asked to see my file. But the prison authorities did not send the file
to him.
“After eight years at Ibara Prison, I
was returned to the Kirikiri Prison. I was considered for pardon by the
Lagos State Government and was released in June 2017,” he added.
Odusanya said upon his release, he met
his nurse girlfriend, whom he was engaged to before the incident, adding
that she was already married with five children.
He noted that his father and mother died while he was in prison.
He said during counselling, some church
workers assisted him to connect with a relative who worked with the
Nigerian Railway Corporation, adding that the relative thought he
(Odusanya) was dead.
The ex-convict lamented the condition of Nigerian prisons, saying many inmates became hardened after going through the system.
“The prisons are not reforming anybody.
Those who make the difference in our prisons are the non-governmental
organisations and churches. Anybody that comes out of prison and
changes, God must have been involved. Most often, criminals become
hardened after passing through the prison.
“I became a born-again Christian in
prison due to the visitations of some churches like the Mountain of Fire
and Miracle Ministries, led by Dr D.K. Olukoya; Pastor Tunde Bakare’s
Latter Rain Assembly and the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Pastor
E.A. Adeboye’s visits to prisons every two years and his ministrations
give people like us hope.
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“I made my O’level credits in prison and
gained admission into the National Open University of Nigeria where I
started studying Cooperative Management. I am now in 200 level. The
challenge I have is that after I was released from prison, the school
withdrew a scholarship it gave me. I have been running around to raise
the school fees of N50,500 to no avail,” he added.
Odusanya urged Nigerians to refrain from
arguments that could make them misbehave, adding that he also believed
that some malevolent forces might have had a hand in his ordeal.
Asked his plans about marriage, he said he was not bothered because he believed God had plans for everyone.
The Chairman of the RCCG Prison and
Hospital Ministry, Pastor Ariyo Popoola, appealed to the government to
provide conducive environment for the youths to thrive and increase
employment opportunities to reduce crime in the country.
He also urged young people to take advantage of various empowerment programmes to become responsible members of society.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police,
Edgal Imohimi, who was represented at the event by the state Police
Public Relations Officer, SP Chike Oti, in a presentation, asked
Nigerians to always be security conscious and avoid giving out too much
personal information on the social media.
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