Saka Adebola, a 35-year-old bricklayer from Kogi State, is a sad man.
With a sombre look, he trudged into the conference room of the church
where he was meeting with the reporter that hot afternoon.
“This world is wicked,” he said as he took his seat. “I pray that no one that I know will suffer for a crime he didn’t commit.”
The young man claimed he spent close to six years at the Ikoyi Prison
for a crime he never committed. Adebola described himself as a victim of
circumstance.
He was charged with the murder of Jide Moses, a fellow bricklayer at the
New Market Settlement Area, Oniru Estate, Lekki phase 1, Victoria
Island.
He was alleged to have stabbed the deceased in the stomach with a broken bottle during a fight.
But according to him, he was wrongly attacked and inflicted with a deep
head wound while trying to protect a food vendor and her baby from being
harmed. He said he was sad that the young man died from the scuffle,
but he insisted he would always stand up in defence of any woman or
child whose life is being threatened.
The event that altered the course of his life, and led to his
incarceration started on September 11, 2009, while working at a
construction site. He said he was working with the same construction
firm, Modulus Construction Company, with the deceased, informing that
himself and the deceased, alongside others, were assigned to work on the
site where the incident took place.
According to him, on that fateful day, a food vendor known as Zainab was
having a fight with her husband and during the scuffle, ran for
protection towards where he was sitting with other workers. He said the
woman had a baby on her back, but that the husband was still coming
after her with the intention to continue the beating. Adebola said he
tried to stop the husband.
That move, he recalled, didn’t go down well with the deceased who, according to Adebola, hit him on the head with a big stick.
He narrated that a fight ensued between him and the deceased but that
they were separated by other workers. But he said after he was being
treated for the wound inflicted on his head, the deceased again charged
at him with a bottle and broke it on his head.
“He attacked me with a bottle of gin, broke it on my head and injured me
more. With blood all over my body, I grabbed him, collected the broken
bottle from him and stabbed him in the hand. I then left the place and
went to the hospital for treatment because I was bleeding seriously,” he
recalled.
He said the deceased later engaged in a fight with some of his friends
who had gone to accost him over the matter. He said he learnt that the
deceased died after his argument with the other workers spiraled out of
control.
“When I left the hospital the next day and reported at the site, I went
to report the incident to the site engineer, who was not around when the
fight took place. The man told me to report the matter at the Maroko
Police Station. I didn’t know that the man I fought was dead, and that
the police had been to my house and arrested my brother because they did
not see me. When I got to the station, the policemen detained me and
released my brother. I was handcuffed for four days despite the deep
wound on my head,” he told the reporter.
Adebola disclosed that he was later transferred to the Criminal
Investigation Division (CID) where he was detained for three years
before he was charged to court for murder on July 3, 2012. The court
ordered that he be remanded in prison till December 19, 2012 before his
case was revisited.
He said it was while he was in the prison that he met a lawyer who agreed to help him free of charge.
Adebola’s case, which went on trial from 2012 to 2014, suffered a series
of adjournments at the instance of the prosecution, and its inability
to continue with the evidence of the female investigating police
officer, who was not coming to the court for cross examination.
After no other witness could be produced in court after an extensive
trial, the young man was finally discharged and acquitted on May 4,
2015.
Haven been in confinement for a long time, losing everything, including
friends, Adebola presently feels lost and alone. He confessed that
integrating properly into the society had been one huge challenge,
adding that he had been facing stigmatisation from members of the
public.
He is appealing to Nigerians to help rehabilitate him, and assist him
with finance to start his life all over again. He said he sat for the
GCE in prison and made credits in six subjects. He told the reporter
that at the moment, education was uppermost in his mind. He said he
would like to study Structural Engineering in any of the nation’s
universities.
“My not going to school in the first place was due to not having anybody
to support my dream. I had to train as a bricklayer to avoid getting
into crime. All through my life, I have never been arrested for crime or
got involved in any type of trouble. Maybe what happened to me was
God’s way of redefining my life. I want to acquire education and provide
for myself like every responsible young man,” he said.
Counsel to Saka Adebola, Mr. Osahon Ihenyen, described his case as quite
unfortunate, explaining that the court had noted that the evidence
before it against the young man was manifestly unreliable and that no
reasonable tribunal could safely convict on it. He explained that the
judge was sad that Adebola was in prison custody since 2009, and
stressed that there was no point further detaining him.
The lawyer, who said the case of the young man was brought to his notice
by a kind-hearted Nigerian, explained that after the prosecution had
closed its case, he opted to make a no-case-submission. He said he filed
a written address in respect of a no-case-submission on November 27,
2013, on the grounds that the defendant had no case to answer. Also,
that the evidence adduced by the prosecution was hearsay, and that the
evidence presented before the court had not established a prima facie
case in order to call upon the defendant to open his defence.
Iheyen further explained that the defendant was charged with murder,
contrary to Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code of Lagos State, year
2003, noting that by the case law, it was clear that to establish the
offense of manslaughter, the prosecution must establish some facts.
“But in this case, the evidence of the prosecution witness, a police
officer, was hearsay because she informed the court that she was not
present at the scene of the crime when the alleged incident took place,
and whatever testimony she gave was based on the information obtained by
her from the defendant, and also that of the DPO, Maroko Police
Station, wife of the deceased and another witness. Also, the police
officer did not tender in evidence any of the said statements, including
that of Adebola because the case file was said to be missing.
He further noted that no autopsy report or medical report of the
deceased were tendered, even as the female police officer failed to
further attend court proceedings and was not available for
cross-examinations.
“The court concluded that the case was speculative, and left room for a
lot of doubt. It was all based on this that a no prima facie case was
established against him. The court was made to understand that in the
instance, there was no evidence before the court to prove the essential
ingredients for the offences of murder for which he was charged, and
that the evidence adduced by the prosecution was so manifestly
unreliable that no reasonable court could safely convict on it. It was
based on this that the court was urged to uphold the no case-submission
and discharge the defendant.”
The lawyer’s only concern now is Adebola’s total rehabilitation and
reintegration into the society. He is also appealing to Nigerians to
reach out in any way they can to help give his life a new meaning and
definition.
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