The immediate former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Oyo state, Mr Oluseun Abimbola, has condemned widespread insinuations that Yewande Oyediran, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in November 2017, by Justice Munta Abimbola, for killing her husband, Lowo, was granted amnesty by former Governor Abiola Ajimobi, because she is a staff of the Oyo state Ministry of Justice.
Speaking with Tribune Online on Monday, Abimbola stated that people are politicising the matter with lies and issues that never came up during the trial including hearsay evidence that was not tendered in court, adding that they were just using the issue to attack the former governor out of malice.
Abimbola explained that people needed to be educated about the provision of the constitution and the exercise of the prerogative of mercy rather than shroud clear issues with sentiments and the politics, adding that it is disheartening that people are hyping just one person out of 50 that got a pardon.
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“If 50 people were given amnesty, do you know where the other 49 came from or where they worked? Why would you say this one was done because she was a staff of the Ministry of Justice? Do you know whether there is a staff of the Ministry of Women affairs or staff of governor’s office in the list? Why is her case being hyped? Why are they not saying the others are given amnesty because they are related to someone? You can already see the prejudice in that opinion because only one person is being singled out; others have been given amnesty even for stricter offences.
“Amnesty has been given across the state; across the federation, amnesty has been given to people who had earlier been convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to life. Are you saying they are not deserving, do people even know the interpretation of amnesty and the exercise of the powers of the prerogative of mercy. Do they know the interpretation of the prerogative of mercy? It means the discretion of the president or the governor, but the law also circumscribes the exercise of that discretion by putting together a committee that made the recommendation. So the person who has the power to exercise the discretion is not the one that made the recommendation?
“So why would they go after the governor for this, for what? If not for malice; and when you say something is a prerogative of mercy, it doesn’t have a qualification, there is nobody that works for mercy, even with God, can you do enough good works to qualify for mercy even with God? Are we not all qualified for judgment with God? So if human beings now have by constitutional powers, the power to exercise a degree of mercy and you are now saying no, this person does not qualify, are you yourself qualified for mercy before God.
“They should stop politicising nonsense. When you talk of the prerogative of mercy, it is not based on your works or something that you have done right, it is based on in spite of what you have not done right, that is the quality of mercy. The recommendation on who to release is not done by any individual; not the governor or Attorney General or even the Ministry of Justice, there is a team which does the recommendation; it has the DSS, Police independent medical doctor, Chief Imam, Chaplain and Legal Aid Council representatives among others.
“People should not forget that the victim’s family must still no doubt be mourning the loss of their son and we should be sensitive to that. However, all taken into consideration and considering the case was not murder but manslaughter which was involuntary but occurred while parties were in a scuffle, the release was recommended along with others for the sake of the exercise of mercy. In all religions mercy is offered over judgment, otherwise we all would not have another chance at doing right,” he concluded.
Also speaking, the Oyo State Command Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Prisons, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons, Anjorin Olanrewaju, stated that amnesty is given to any inmate according to the constitutional power of any government. “A government sets up a committee to look into those that are qualified to enjoy this prerogative of mercy. Amnesty is then granted based on the recommendation of such committee. The Nigerian Prisons Service’s duty is to keep and present prison inmates that are legally interned to the court of law as and when due. It is also obligated to obey any valid documented order from the government to release any inmate in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“This was the case of the 50 inmates pardoned by the former governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, of which Yewande Oyediran was amongst. Inquiries on why they were selected should be made to the Department of Public Prosecution in Oyo State,” he stated.
However, legal counsel to the Oyediran family, Chief Yomi Alliyu (SAN) said the release is a shock to the family. “The family is still in shock. They still didn’t believe the government could do that in a case where the lady wounded her husband in the afternoon and finally killed him in the night. Since they are poor and know nobody, they have left Yewande and everybody involved to their conscience and the judgment of Almighty God,” he said.
