After spending 11 years in prison, Temitope Olowosile secured his freedom at the Maximum Security Prison, Kirikiri, Lagos on December 20, 2013. Yinka Olatunbosun, who had a chat with him in Lagos shortly after his release, reports.
Snatched Dream…
He hails from Kogi State. Temitope Olowosile, 36, is a very happy man and it showed in his unreserved joy on his release just before last Christmas. Alone, he once lived in agony and shared the misery that prison life had to offer with other inmates on death row.
Recently, Olowosile shared his account with this reporter sparing only the very grievous details that hurt too much.
‘I didn’t just go to prison, I learnt a lot there. I was a secondary school student before I was arrested. I usually drove a commercial bus after school hours to make ends meet. I finished my secondary school education in 1998 at Victory College, Ikeja. I was about to gain admission to the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro when the incident happened.’
Framed…
Olowosile narrated how he was thrown into a mess that took over a decade for him to get out of. He said he was framed.
‘I had a friend then. We both finished secondary school together. He is from a wealthy home and he was really my 5 and 6. He saw me driving the commercial vehicle one day at Ikeja and he stopped by to ask me why I was doing that. I explained to him that I had to survive.
‘He took me to his house and we spoke at length. He asked if I would like to go for further studies. I said I would.’
Olowosile has the typical coarse voice of a commercial bus driver but what sets him apart is his modest use of English language.
‘In 2001, my friend who was already a student at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro invited me to his place and told me to take his car. He said he was travelling to Abuja. On my way back to Lagos around that Agbado Ijaiye area, I met a check point and I was stopped by the police there.
‘Suddenly, I heard the policemen saying, “This is the vehicle. He is an armed robber.” I became confused and worried. I had to quickly explain that I was not the owner of the vehicle and that I got it from a friend.
‘The police said I had to come to station to give my explanation. That was February 20, 2001. I was abandoned at the police station for about 6 or 7 months and none of my relatives was informed. I was later moved to Area F at Ikeja.
‘There I saw some boys in my area that were arrested too. The boys said they didn’t know me but they were familiar faces to me anyway. I didn’t know what their offences were and I didn’t know anything at all about the crime so I just told the police that I know them since they were faces known to me in my neighborhood. In fact, one of them was in my secondary school.
‘A third day after that, we were paraded at the Ikeja Police Command and someone pointed at me that I was the one who robbed him. I had never seen that fellow before in my life. That was the first day I had seen him.
‘Meanwhile, I never heard from my friend who had the car and he must have heard about my arrest. About one and a half years after my arrest, he had a case with the police and he was arrested but it was quickly settled.’
His family members were perplexed by the situation and were unable to support him as they should due to financial challenges.
‘By the time my case was transferred to Area F, my family members got to know about it. But when they saw that the case was getting too complicated, they had to leave me in God’s hands. I was charged to the High Court for armed robbery. On March 22, 2010, I was convicted.’
Sentenced to Death…
The case against Oluwasile at the High Court was that on June 30 2002 along the Railway Line beside the Ikeja Local Government Secretariat, he conspired to rob and robbed while armed with a kitchen knife, one Sergeant Ishola Isiaka of his handset and sim card valued at N20,000. He was sentenced to death.
After his conviction, he had a harrowing experience behind the bars which he insisted was not worthy of being discussed.
‘It was a very terrible and horrible experience. In fact, going and coming back from court alone itself is another source of frustration. Initially, I was arraigned alongside those boys I identified at the police station in Ikeja and we were casemates for a while. But later, two of them were taken off the matter in court, leaving one of them. I didn’t want to say anything that would implicate my friend so I remained there.
‘Prison experience is a bitter experience and it is not something one can be talking about. It is like going through the valley of the shadow of death. It is too painful for me and I can’t share it.
‘We condemned inmates; Oh I thank God I am not among them anymore! Those condemned inmates survive only on the grace of God. Even going to the prison chapel was by God’s grace and the help of Pastor Popoola. I met the pastor when I was transferred from Ikoyi prison to Kirikiri in 2004 but he was only around for two weeks then and was discharged.’
Lawyers on His Case…
Unable to sustain the financial demands of the legal action against him, Olowosile relied on the free legal services provided by the state through the Office of the Public Defender (OPD).
‘My lawyer at the High Court was Mrs. Yinka Adeyemi. Initially, I had a lawyer whom I was paying to defend me but I learnt that the lawyer was very ill and that he suffered stroke that affected his two legs. After that, I could not afford the services of a lawyer. But God sent me Mrs. Atilade as my lawyer from the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). I hear she is now a judge. But she later handed my matter to Mrs. Yinka Adeyemi.
‘When I was convicted, I felt very bad. That was March 22 2010 by Justice Deborah Oluwayemi. I felt really bad and I felt like killing myself. My dad was very regular in court but on the day of judgment, I told him not to come. But my girlfriend then was around. She was with me in the court.
‘As I was taken to prison, I was praying that God should let us crash into the lagoon so that we would all just die at once. But God didn’t answer my prayer and I was taken to the prison that I really dreaded.’
In Pursuit of a Purpose…
Olowosile believed strongly that there was a reason why this sad experience took place. He expressed his spiritual conviction.
‘An inmate used to tell me at the prison that God wanted to use me for a purpose and that if I didn’t fulfill that purpose I would never leave the prison. I never liked that inmate because he said that to me. It sounded like a curse to me.
‘But when I was convicted, I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, so I turned to God. I had a dream. It was like a crusade and someone was pulling me like a cow saying, “They are looking for you”. I saw a drum set and then I started playing it. I just took my cue from that. I started playing instrument at the chapel at the prison. I played until I was released. I didn’t enroll in the school instead I concentrated on the chapel work.
‘When I was informed of my release, I was too happy. I could not eat. My inmate was worried that he said to me, “Na now you wan kill yourself”.
‘My former pastor called LEDAP and my matter was presented to Mr Chino Obiagwu. All through the years I spent in prison, I was not visited by my family members. It was as though they gave up on the case.’
The Court of Appeal, Lagos had on December 9, 2013 delivered judgment in his favour and found him innocent, following the appeal filed by his lawyers at Legal Defence and Assistance Project –
(LEDAP), a non-governmental organization.
In the judgment, the Court resolved all the issues raised at the appeal in favour of the appellant. In particularly, the court found that the case of the prosecution was not proved beyond reasonable doubt
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