For Lukman Adeyemi, the last 24 years is like horror movie where he took the lead role without his consent which started with an innocent support and misguided loyalty to a friend that he followed to the police station. He described his experience as a spiral into hopelessness through nine years in pre-trial detention, followed by an agonizing 15 years on death row.
He spoke of torture and endless nightmare of his interrogation by SARS Police officers which he said consisted of physical and psychological torment and ultimate coercion into admitting to crimes he had no knowledge of under duress.
While he remained incredulous at being held accountable for another’s transgressions, questioning the justice system’s integrity and fairness in making an innocent bystander to be caught in the web of injustice and legal quagmire that he already deemed insurmountable before help came his way.
He said his decision to accompany his friend to the police station, out of a sense of loyalty and duty, inadvertently led to his own wrongful arrest and subsequent incarceration and throughout his years of imprisonment, he faced skepticism and disbelief when attempting to share his truth with others. The prevailing sentiment of doubt and suspicion only added to his misery, as he grappled with the weight of false accusations and a lack of justice.
And this continued until hope came like the light at the end of the tunnel when he crossed paths with the Centre for Justice Mercy and Reconciliation (CJMR) team, headed by Pastor Hezekiah Olujobi which took on his case and support and advocated on his behalf, this signaled a potential breakthrough in his quest for freedom.
Giving his account, he said, “I am Lukman Adeyemi, a native of Iwerele, Iwajowa Local Government, Oyo State. I am a bricklayer and was 26 years old when this problem started. In August, 2000, I got home from work with a friend, Ismaila Lasisi, who was living with me. We were told that police came to look for Ismaila and he was asked to report at the station, I followed him to the station; I was arrested and detained along with him, tortured to the point of death over a crime I knew nothing about; the murder of a woman who was hired by some ex-friends of Ismaila Lasisi to fetch water for them at a construction site. The woman left home in the morning and she never returned home.
“Ismaila was living with them before a disagreement that made him move to my place in March. I only knew his friends from a far distance but I was charged to court along with them and in 2009, we were sentenced to death. We filed separate appeal but the Appeal failed to the Supreme Court. In June, 2023 one of the officers of the Correctional Service Deputy Superintendent of Correctional (DSC) AbdulKareem Awesu introduced my case to a pastor and I spoke with him on phone. On July 17, 2023, a group of Centre for Justice Mercy and Reconciliation (CJMR) visited us at the Ibara Correctional Service where they listened to all of us including the culprits who exonerated us, the organization went with all our judgment and shed light to our innocence. And on June 14, 2024, light shine upon me, rain fell on my head and I saw the moon for the first time in 24 years. I never knew I could pay for the sin of another man,” he said.
Speaking, Pastor Hezekiah Deboboye Olujobi said, “Our attention was drawn to the complaints of these two people on their claim of innocence by the Welfare Officer DCP Awesu who invited us to come and help these people assuring us of their innocence and the effort made through the legal process without justice, we went to Ibara Custodial Centre in Abeokuta to hear from them. The two perpetrators confided on us that truly, they were the one who committed the crime that the two people were totally innocent of the crime, we adjusted our seats to hear them very well, it was a long drilling of questions on their parts but yet they insisted on their innocence. What they said carried no weight in my ears until I read through the judgment that convicted them for our review.
“We noticed the presentation of the state before the appellate court could never allow the court to shift ground. Each of them filed separate appeal to the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. We realized that none of the lawyers explored the way of arrest of each person in this case, this is what the lawyer at the trial court should have done but very unfortunate he couldn’t, failure of the perpetrators to clear them of the crime could not have helped them at that time. Probing the way of arrest of individuals in the case unfolded the truth on this matter. There were contradictions in the judgment. We forwarded our findings to the office of the Attorney General of Ogun State and the Committee for the board of Prerogative of Mercy and they considered our appeal. It is not about their story but the fact in the record corroborated their story,” he added.
CJMR has successfully facilitated the release of over 20 individuals wrongfully convicted, secured the freedom of more than 600 individuals unlawfully detained in South West Nigeria, and reintegrated over 300 individuals into society.
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