In a moment of joy and rekindled hope, ObedSopuruchi and Oto-ObongEdet stepped out of the gate of the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons, free to go home and reunite with their loved ones.

Sopuruchi jumped ahead walking free, savouring the air of freedom.

“I just want to walk free of everyone. It’s like I’ve never been free before. Since I got the news two weeks ago that I was going to be free, I have not been able to sleep, I just kept vigil, praying,” he said gleefully.

Edet stepped out clutching a bible. For him, the prison experience was not all about punishment; he had learnt so much.

Though he would never see his mother, who had died in 2007 in the middle of the crisis, Edet did not hold anything against the police or the judicial system for the error of sending him to jail for 10 years over an offence he did not commit.

The skill of shoe making he had acquired and his vast knowledge of the easily-taken-for-granted acts that could result in imprisonment, seemed to have made up for all the trouble of 10 years. Besides, he believes that God has a fore knowledge of everything that happens to a man.

For 10 years Sopuruchi and Edet were in prison, from Ikoyi Prison, where they were remanded while awaiting trial for alleged armed robbery, to Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, where they were remanded waiting for death.

For five years, they were waiting in fear of the day the hangman would call.

“Many people on death row simply die of fear even before the hangman comes.”Edet said.

On his part, Sopuruchi said, “I had a cellmate, Dafe Thomas, who committed suicide last year.”

Sopuruchi’s brother, Mr. Daniel Ogalabu, who was on hand to receive him on behalf of the family on Friday, told our correspondent that Sopuruchi, who was shot at the police station after being rounded up in a raid could have been killed while in prison.

Sopuruchi, now 26 years old and Edet, now 27, were only 16 and 17 respectively, when they were arrested by the police and charged with conspiracy and armed robbery contrary to Section 403(a) and 402(2) of the Criminal Code Cap(17) Vol.2 Laws of Lagos State, 2003.

From holiday to prison

Sopuruchi, who was living with his parents in Abuja had visited Lagos in 2004 to spend his holiday with his uncle after his SS2 third term promotion examinations. He had been in Lagos for only two weeks when he was rounded up during a police raid at Agbara.

He recounted the ordeal which befell him10 years ago with clarity as if everything had just happened the day before.

He recalled how he had gone to a nearby cybercafe to browse the internet in the morning of October 6, 2004. He said he bought ticket for two hours and because he did not exhaust the time, he had gone back in the evening to use the rest.

He said he had alighted from a bike and walked into a pandemonium where policemen were arresting people on the street.

“They took me to Morogbo Police Station and a policeman was saying I was a robber. How? He searched me, he didn’t find anything and I was even trying to show him the ticket I used at the cyber cafe. He just kept beating me. At a point, he brought out a gun and shot one of my legs.

“Being only a child I was so scared that when he kept saying, ‘you people have been robbing, abi?’ I just kept saying yes, because I thought someone who could shoot me, could kill me, so if he wanted me to say yes so that I’d live, I would just say yes.”

Like Sopuruchi, like Edet

Edet’s arrest was on the following day.

He had come to Lagos from Calabar two years earlier. He served a man who sold cassettes at Oshodi for two years after which the man set up a cassettes shop for him at Morogbo Bus Stop, Agbara.

“I had a shop at Morogbo Bus Stop where I sold cassettes. On that day, I returned home around 8pm and met a cross sign made in red ink on my door. I was told that some policemen had come to look for me over an issue and left a warning that I must not enter my room until the issue was resolved.

He said, “That night, I did not sleep in the house. I went to sleep in the house of my kinsman. I explained everything to him and he advised me that we should go to the police station the following day to find out what the problem was.

“The following day we decided to first speak with the Baale (the community head) before going to the police station. It was at the Baale’s compound that the policemen met us; they arrested me and without allowing me to say anything, they shot my leg.

“They took me to Morogbo Police Station where I met Sopuruchi and some other people inside the cell. The policeman asked if I knew him and I said no because I was meeting him for the first time.”

The two men went on to tell of how the police accused them of having robbed one Mrs. Praise Lawani.

Sopuruchi said, “All of a sudden, the whole story just changed, they were talking of armed robbery. They took us to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, and there I met a man, Abu John, I still remember his name. He had a problem with one of his legs. He was holding a knife and shouting ‘Na unadey robabi?’”

“The policeman said they had a special informant who told him that we were the people who robbed,” Edet said.

They also told us of how they were tortured to confess to the offence.

Sopuruchi said, “They took me to one uncompleted building, they tied my hands to my back, they tied my two legs and then tied my hands and my legs together, they now put a rod in-between, you know how they prepare chicken for roasting. Oh God it was hell!

“They started asking where my buyer was and I don’t sell anything, how could I have a buyer? But when they tortured me I mentioned all sort of names that I did not know.

“At Morogbo Police Station, one Inspector Kingsley Ayo wrote a statement for me. I know how to write, I know how to read but they didn’t allow me to write, they didn’t allow me to read, they just compelled me to sign, and by then they had already shot my leg, so anything they wanted me to do was what I just did.”

Edet told of how he was tortured and told by the police officer that if he could confess to the crime, he would be freed and how the officer had written a statement on which he was compelled to append his name.

The trial

On October 27, 2004, they were arraigned before an EbuteMetta Magistrate’s Court which ordered their remand at the Ikoyi prison.

Their case proceeded to the Lagos State High Court and they were tried on a charge that read, “SopuruchiObed (M) and Oto-Obong Sunday Edet (M) on or about the 30th day of September, 2004 at Obele Road, off Maigbon, Lagos, in the Lagos Judicial Division while armed with offensive weapons to wit: guns robbed one Praise Lawani of a sum of N54,000, a digital Kodak camera worth N60,000, a Motorola handset, two wrist watches valued at N16,000, two kitchen knives and a cutlass all valued at N130,000.”

The police added that the suspects were in possession of a locally made gun, a knife and eight cartridges at the time of the crime.

At the end of a trial that lasted for five years, Justice Mojisola Dada of a Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, on May 28, 2009, pronounced them guilty of conspiracy and armed robbery and sentenced them to death.

The court’s judgment was passed on the strength of the testimonies of two police officers, Inspector Kingsley Ayo of Morogbo Police Divisional Area and Sergeant Femi Amore of CID Alagbon coupled with the confessional statements of the accused which the police said were given voluntarily.

The convicts’ lawyer had questioned the existence of Mrs. Lawani, the purported victim of the said robbery, who was not brought before the court to testify.

Sopuruchi said, “There was no complainant in my matter, nobody came to testify. The policeman that came to testify that he took my statement, Femi Amore or something like that, I saw him for the first time on the day they took us to the Magistrate’s Court, the second time was when he came to testify in court. When he said he took my statement under a free environment, I asked myself why he was doing this; ‘why are you lying?”

“No one came to testify against us in court, only the two IPOs. There was no witness and even when the judge asked for the informant that said we were the ones who robbed, the policeman said the boy had not been seen again since the incident,” Edet added.

With the sentence handed down they were taken to the Kirikiri Maximum prison.

The prison experience

Sopuruchi had a lot to tell. He spoke of many deaths he had witnessed; he spoke of the poor accommodation.

“Our cell was four by four in measurement, very small and there were four guys, three huge men. I was the smallest among them. Once they lock that cell everything we do, we do it inside there,” he said, and by everything, it included defecating inside a bowl.

On the quality of food, he laughed and said, “I know you don’t want to serve your dog that kind of food; as for quantity, if you give a four-year-old child, that child will ask for more. It’s bad.”

He told of inmates who ended up on death row for fighting.

“There is one of my cell mates, Kingsley Ahabue, he was involved in a fight with some people and Fabian Matthew, another inmate now on death row. The two of them were arrested and charged with armed robbery. Both of them are now on death row.”

He added, “There was one Godwin Alao whose brother was arrested for fighting. When they took the brother to the police station, Alao went there to see him. They arrested Alao and took him to court along with his brother. The court condemned Alao.”

School in prison

Sopuruchi is currently a 300 Level Law Student in the National Open University. What gave him the motivation to go to school knowing that he was on death row?

He said, “From the very first day they convicted me, I never gave up. When I was able to reach out to my mum, the very day they convicted me, the way she spoke, I said to myself, if this woman could be this strong why shouldn’t I be? After all, I didn’t commit the offence.”

Sopuruchi dreams of practising Law if the Council of Legal Education would accredit the Law programme of the Open University.

The story of freedom

The journey that would eventually culminate in their freedom on Friday began when Sopuruchi met Pastor PopoolaAyoola, a prison evangelist, who ran a prison ministry called Light Gate Ministry.

“While I was still an awaiting trial inmate, I was writing exams at the Kirkiri Maximum Prison. It was during the period that I met Pastor Popoola; he wasn’t just an ordinary pastor to me, we had this father-to-son relationship,” Sopuruchi said.

Ayoola was the one who brought their case before the Legal Defence and Assistance Project, a non-governmental organisation championing the cause of human rights, rule of law and good governance in Nigeria.

When asked what motivated his interest in the case of Sopuruchi and Edet, Ayoola said, “I see it as a calling. Light Gate Ministry has been running for more than 10 years and I have been working with LEDAP for over 10 years.

“I once had a short stint in the prison myself. The motivation is from what I went through. I know there are a lot of innocent people in the prison. I do it to give people hope. I want to help the prisoners, especially the indigent ones, to stabilise them emotionally.”

Miscarriage of justice

In 2011, LEDAP filed an appeal on behalf of the two of them. The case was to last for three years before the Court of Appeal in Lagos.

Counsel for the two men, who is also the National Coordinator of LEDAP, Mr. Chino Obiagwu, had argued that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses were mere hearsay and that the vital evidence required to prove the charges against Sopuruchi and Edet were not provided by the prosecution.

He further argued that their conviction by the high court contravened Section 368(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act and Section 2 of the Children and Young Persona Act, since they were underage persons who ought to have been taken before a juvenile court.

He had therefore prayed the appellate court to set aside the judgement of the high court and free Sopuruchi and Edet.

The Court of Appeal granted the prayers.

In a judgement delivered by Justice YargataNimpar and consented to by Justices S.D. Bage and J.Y. Tukur, the appellate court faulted the decision of the high court.

The appellate court held that the testimonies of the two police officers were mere hearsays.

The lead judgment read in part, “The evidence of PW1 was a narration of what Mrs. Lawani said and not what PW1 witnessed or knows personally. Such evidence is unacceptable and offends Section 38 of the Evidence Act, 2011.

“There is no evidence of the fact of a robbery because nobody told the court how, where and when the robbery took place. All that must expectedly come from someone who witnessed the robbery or who was a victim of the robbery.

“The police in the station cannot be a witness to a crime which took place in a different location when he was not at that venue except if he is a spirit.”

On the age of the convicts, the court held, “The trial court must be certain about the age of a person who appears to be a young person at the time of conviction. It must be determined upon acceptable and verifiable evidence. Failure to act upon an established age of the appellant has occasioned a miscarriage of justice.”

String of violations

LEDAP said that Sopuruchi and Edet’s tale captured the travails of juveniles who were being tried in the adult court and sentenced to death in spite of provisions of the law prohibiting sentencing persons under the age of 18 years, insane persons or pregnant women to death.

While commenting on the judgment, Obiagwucriticised the continued use of death penalty in the country with its high risk of mistaken convictions.

The lawyer, who was at the forefront of securing the freedom of Sopurchi and Edet said, “Most of the condemned juveniles have been convicted based on questionable confessional statements obtained by the police upon their arrests. This case presents another opportunity for deep soul-searching by leaders in our criminal justice system and legislators on continued imposition of death sentences in the country with such imperfect criminal justice system, which range from poor police investigation to inefficient prosecution and unduly protracted trial processes.

“Nearly seven out of every 10 death penalty appeals that LEDAP has handled in the last two years have resulted in the acquittal of the appellants, suggesting a very high rate of wrongful capital convictions.”

He confirmed that that incidence of prosecuting juveniles in adult courts was high in Nigeria, and that there was little or no hesitation by many courts to sentence them to death, despite the clear provisions of the law.

The Family Court neglected

Under the law, Sopuruchi and Edet and other persons under the age of 18 prosecuted or being prosecuted in the regular courts, ought to have been taken to the Family Court.

Section 149 of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003, establishes the Family Court in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. The Family Court is the court with the exclusive jurisdiction over cases (criminal or civil) relating to a child.

This was the court the two men ought to have been taken when they were arrested in 2004.

Section 149 of the Child’s Rights Act reads: “There shall be established for each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, a court to be known as the Family Court (in this Act referred to as the Court) for the purposes of hearing and determining matters relating to children.”

Section 151 (1)(a – b) reads, “(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and in addition to such other jurisdiction as may be conferred on it by any other law, the Court shall have unlimited jurisdiction to hear and determine –

“(a) Any civil proceeding in which the existence or extent of a legal right, power duty, liability privilege interest, obligation or claim in respect of a child is in issue; and

“(b) 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 against the interest of a child.”

Section 204 of the Child’s Rights Act 2003, emphasises the exclusivity of the Family Court to entertain cases relating to a child, “No child shall be subjected to the criminal justice process or to criminal sanctions, but a child alleged to have committed an act which would constitute a criminal offence if he were an adult shall be subjected only to the child justice system and processes set out in this Act.”

The child’s rights law also provides for the expeditious determination of the cases involving a child and prohibits passing of death sentence on a child.

Section 221 of the law reads, “(1) No child shall be ordered to be (a) imprisoned; or (b) subjected to corporal punishment or

“(c)subjected to the death penalty or, have the death penalty recorded against him.

(2) No expectant mother or nursing mother shall be subjected to the death penalty or have the death penalty recorded against her.”

But the law in section 115, makes provision for the Family Court to deprive a child of his or her personal liberty only if he or she is found guilty of   (i) a serious offence involving violence against another person; or (ii) persistence in committing other serious offences, and there is no other appropriate response that will protect the public safety; the wellbeing of the child is the guiding factor in the consideration of his case.”

Section 215 concludes in subsection 3, saying, “The Court shall handle each case brought before it expeditiously without unnecessary delay.”

Prison, for destruction or rehabilitation?

Ayoola said, “I’ve always been telling the government at every opportunity that I have that the prison should not be a place of destruction but a place of reformation. Right now that is not what we have, we hope and pray for a better Nigeria.”

LEDAP who fought for the freedom of Sopuruchi and Edet promised not to relent in the call to the government for a review of death penalty.

“We call on the Nigerian government to reconsider its stand on the use of capital punishment by abolishing the death penalty and replacing same with life imprisonment or other humane alternatives,” it said.

* Culled from Punch Newspaper