Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has pardoned the widely known “death-for-fowl” convict, Segun Olowookere, alongside his co-convict, Sunday Morakinyo.
Olowookere, who was 17 years old at the time of his arrest in November 2010, was convicted and sentenced to death by an Osun State High Court on December 17, 2014, for conspiracy to commit armed robbery, robbery, and stealing.
His case gained public attention recently after his mother appeared on a podcast, pleading for intervention in her son’s plight.
The story went viral on social media, prompting Adeleke to direct the state’s attorney general to begin the process for his pardon.
In a statement released on Thursday by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, the governor announced the pardon of Olowookere, Morakinyo, and 51 other inmates.
The statement partly read, “In line with the recommendations of the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, Governor Ademola Adeleke has exercised the prerogative of mercy towards 53 convicts serving various convictions within the Nigerian Correctional Service.
“Now know ye therefore that, I, Senator Ademola Jackson Adeleke, the Governor of Osun State of Nigeria, in exercise of the power conferred on me by paragraph (a), (c) and (d) of subsection (i) of Section 212 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended), I am pleased to extend my grace and mercy unto the said inmates.
“Convict recommended for outright pardon for good conduct (capital offences) are: Sunday Morakinyo, Segun Olowookere, Tunde Olapade and Demola Odeyemi.”
Chronicle NG reported that the Osun governor has demanded an immediate investigation into the man’s death sentence for stealing a chicken.
Adeleke had assured residents of Osun State that the staggering judgement was receiving the utmost attention and noted that his office was working “to grant prerogatives of mercy to the young man.”
