Oluwasina Ogungbade, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ogun State, revealed that Ogbonna Ogbojionu, an Abia State native who was recently released from prison after serving 22 years, was imprisoned for robbery rather than purchasing a stolen generator, as was rumored on social media.
In a statement he signed on Wednesday, Ogungbade claimed that Ogbonna and his cronies also killed a guard during the October 3, 2000 heist.
After 22 years in prison, Ogbonna’s narrative of regaining his release through the intervention of Abia State Governor Alex Otti made him a phenomenon on the Internet.
According to multiple social media reports, Ogbonna was sentenced to death for allegedly buying a stolen generator, a claim that has since drawn condemnation of the Nigerian justice system.
The reports had claimed that Ogbonna disclosed that, at the time of his arrest in 1999, he was forced to write a statement that he did not understand, prosecuted and then sentenced to death.
Reacting to the claims, Ogungbade described the claims as false, narrating that Ogbonna was lawfully and rightly convicted for the crime he committed.
While narrating the series of events that led to the death sentence conviction, the AG disclosed that on October 3, 2000, at about 10 pm, “a gang of armed robbers attacked the ELF petrol station along Abeokuta-Lagos road and stole a 10 KVA Lister generator. The armed robbers overpowered and detained the two guards at the fuel station.
They hit one guard – Yusuf Akanni – with an iron rod on his head and his leg, breaking his femur. They hit the second guard, Moses Bankole, on the head with an iron rod as well, then they bound both guards. Moses Bankole died on the spot, while bound, while Ogbonna and the other armed robbers made away with the Lister generator.
“Yusuf Akanni, the surviving guard, was the first prosecution witness for Ogun State. Ogbonna was a generator technician, so he was the robber who specifically loosened the generator from where it was secured in the ELF filling station.”
He continued that some days later, at about 2:30 am, a police team intercepted a vehicle at the Toll Gate area loaded with firewood and pure water bags, but upon a search of the vehicle, the police discovered it was used to conceal the same generator that was stolen earlier. When the driver, Ogbonna and one Kolawole Oladeji were confronted, they could not provide evidence of ownership of the generator.
The AG noted that the driver and Oladeji zoomed off while the police were trying to impound the vehicle, leaving Ogbonna behind.
Ogungbade continued, “Ogbonna was detained in one of the cells at Toll Gate, but before morning, Ogbonna escaped by breaking through the asbestos in the cell’s ceiling. However, by that time, the Police had already recorded the vehicle’s registration number.
“Investigations at the Alausa licensing office disclosed the owner of the vehicle who presented his four drivers to the Police. Sunday Oloyede turned out to be one of the truck owner’s drivers, and he was arrested. He led the Police to Kolawole Oladeji and Segun Ajibade.
“The three then led the police to Ogbonna, who was arrested, but by then had already sold the generator. Ogbonna led the police to the person he sold the generator to, one Ali Rihan, who released the generator back to the police and testified against Ogbonna and the others, as the 11th prosecution witness.”
