By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Ogun State, Oluwasina Ogungbade, SAN, has strongly refuted a trending reports claiming that Ogbonna Ogbojionu, a recently released prison inmate, was wrongfully convicted in 2003 over a stolen generator.
In a lengthy statement on Wednesday, Ogungbade described the viral narrative as “entirely false,” and an attempt to recreate Ogbonna as a victim of injustice, clarifying that the man was convicted of a violent armed robbery that led to the death of a security guard, not for the innocuous act of buying a stolen item.
The Attorney-General revealed that Ogbonna was found guilty and sentenced to death by the Ogun State High Court on January 14, 2003, for his partaking in a brutal robbery that occurred on October 3, 2000, at the ELF petrol station along the Abeokuta-Lagos expressway. The robbery led to the theft of a 10 KVA Lister generator and the death of Moses Bankole, one of the station’s security guards.
Ogungbade revealed that Ogbonna, a generator technician – and believed to be an indigene of Abia State, was part of a gang that broke into a filling station at night, used iron rods to assault two guards—killing one and seriously injuring the other.
He noted that the bid to sanitize Ogbonna’s conduct with falsehoods and recreate him as a victim, does fresh injustice to the victims of his crime.
“Ogbonna’s crime hobbled a business, terrorised Akanni Yusuf, and killed Moses Bankole. These victims or their relations remain today and attempts to sanitise Ogbonna’s conduct with falsehoods does fresh injustice to the victims.
“Those who, in a misguided quest for justice, are recreating Ogbonna as a victim will do well to remember Moses Bankole – the true and irredeemable victim of Ogbonna’s crime.
“If Ogbonna is truly reformed, he should silently and gratefully enjoy his freedom and pursue honest pursuits. Presently, his honesty is highly doubtful, and the world is hereby notified,”Ogungbade stated in part.
The Attorney General’s statement read in full:
“My Office has observed recent viral publications regarding Ogbonna Ogbojionu, who was recently released from prison after many years. These reports allege that Ogbonna was wrongfully imprisoned for over two decades for merely buying a stolen generator and that the real thief – one Segun Ajibade – was pardoned in 2016, leaving Ogbonna to suffer for nine more years. This narrative is entirely false.Ogbonna was convicted on 14 January 2003 by the Ogun State High Court and sentenced to death. However, Ogbonna’s death sentence was converted to a life sentence in June 2021 by Governor Dapo Abiodun CON, in exercise of the prerogative of mercy. The prerogative of mercy is a constitutional power vested in the President and State Governors, based on advice from the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (ACPM). The Attorney-General of Ogun State is the Chairman of the Ogun State ACPM. Ogbonna was a beneficiary of the most recent prerogative of mercy exercised by the Governor to commemorate Democracy Day 2025.Ogbonna did not merely buy a stolen generator. Indeed, there is no evidence till date, that Ogbonna ever bought the generator in issue. The true facts are that around 10:00 pm on 3 October 2000, a gang of armed robbers attacked 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 on 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 ELF filling station.At 2:30 am a few days later, around Toll Gate, Ota, the Police randomly stopped a vehicle which was loaded with firewood and pure water bags that had been used to conceal a big generator. That generator turned out to be the same generator stolen from ELF. Ogbonna was in the vehicle alongside the vehicle’s driver (Sunday Oloyede) and one Kolawole Oladeji. When confronted by the Police, none of them could produce a receipt for the generator, so the Police decided to impound he vehicle and arrest its occupants. As the Police were planning to move the vehicle to the station, the driver and Kolawole Oladeji zoomed off with the vehicle, leaving Ogbonna behind. Ogbonna was detained in one of the cells at Toll Gate but before morning, Ogbonna escaped by breaking 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 eleventh prosecution witness. Based on these events, these defendants, including Ogbonna, confessed to how they had planned the whole robbery. Ogbonna made two confessional statements in two different Police stations – they were admitted as Exhibits K and B, without objection as to coercion. The prosecution called eleven witnesses in all, but Ogbonna and his co-defendants did not call any witnesses. Instead, they chose to rest their case on that of the prosecution. Under the law, this meant that they agreed with the facts narrated with the prosecution but did not believe it was enough to convict them. However, the court thought otherwise and convicted them. These facts completely dispel all the lies that Ogbonna and his packagers are currently circulating. Ogbonna participated in the armed robbery. Ogbonna participated in transporting the generator by cover of night, hidden under pure water bags and firewood – nobody carrying property they believe to be theirs will hide it in that manner. Ogbonna fled lawful detention. Ogbonna, also, after having seen the driver run away from the Police with the generator, still proceeded to reunite with that same driver and still sell the generator without regard to the driver’s suspicious conduct. Ogbonna was an integral part of the armed robbery. If Ogbonna truly owned the generator, he would have presented a receipt or any evidence of purchase to the Police at the checkpoint or at his trial. Ogbonna knew the value and status of a receipt, because he issued Ali Rihan a receipt after selling the generator to Ali. If Ogbonna was truly tortured in detention to confess, what is his explanation for not objecting to the confessional statement at trial? How does he explain his legal strategy of calling no witnesses? Why did he not bring any witnesses who knew that he owned the generator, who knew his lawful source of living, or who sold him the generator? The truth is that all these did not exist. Ogbonna rested his case on the prosecution’s case. He did not call any witness and he did not tender any evidence. All that he is saying today was available to be said at his trial and he voluntarily said nothing. As Justice Oputa said in the 1988 case of N M Ali & Amor. v. The State, “if the prosecution rests and refuses to put an accused person into the witness box to dispose to his own version of the events, then… The court will not be expected to speculate on what the accused might have said if he testified”. Ogbonna could have provided evidence to defend himself and he did not. Without that evidence, the Judge was right to convict him, and my Office was correct – even obligated – to prosecute him.The prerogative of mercy is not a right. Nobody is entitled to it. And it is not automatically extended to convicts merely because they have been in prison for long periods. The prerogative is granted entirely at the Governor’s discretion, considering the nature of the convict’s offence, the convict’s assessed tendency to reoffend, the convict’s ability to reintegrate into society, and the convict’s reformation demonstrated most importantly by his remorse and regret. If, as the viral reports now claim, Segun Ajibade has truly led a quiet life since his release, it likely suggests genuine remorse for his crimes and his gratitude for his freedom. This is the exact opposite of Ogbonna’s intransigence today and could explain why Ogbonna was not considered for release when Segun was.Ogbonna’s crime hobbled a business, terrorised Akanni Yusuf, and killed Moses Bankole. These victims or their relations remain today and attempts to sanitise Ogbonna’s conduct with falsehoods does fresh injustice to the victims. Those who, in a misguided quest for justice, are recreating Ogbonna as a victim will do well to remember Moses Bankole – the true and irredeemable victim of Ogbonna’s crime. If Ogbonna is truly reformed, he should silently and gratefully enjoy his freedom and pursue honest pursuits. Presently, his honesty is highly doubtful, and the world is hereby notified.”
