A 22 year old boy bought a generator in 1999. The person who sold it to him came back two weeks later, accompanied by policemen who told him the generator was stolen. Both of them got arrested.
What happened next is the kind of injustice that makes you question everything about this country.
Ogbonnaya Igbojionu was beaten and allegedly forced to sign a statement he couldn’t even read.
Four years later, in 2003, he was sentenced to death. His crime was that he bought a generator he thought was legitimate (he didn’t steal it o; he bought it). He was 26 years old then. His entire life was over before it even started.
If we add all the years he spent in prison before the sentence. That’s 26 years altogether that he sat in prison on death row. Twenty six whole years!
While he rotted away, the man who actually sold him the generator, Segun Ajibade, walked free in 2016 after receiving a pardon from the then Ogun State’s governor.
Biko, make this make sense.
The same system that sentenced an innocent man to death let the guilty one go. And nobody saw anything wrong with that.
Ogbonnaya wasn’t alone. Kolawole Oladeji, a technician who simply repaired the generator without knowing it was stolen, suffered the same fate. Their trials were flawed. They appealed, but were allegedly misled into withdrawing their appeal with false promises of a pardon that never came.
So they just stayed there, forgotten. Waiting to die for a crime they didn’t commit.
In 2025, a TikToker named Olumide Ogunsanwo stumbled on Ogbonnaya’s story and posted it. The public outcry was immediate. Simon Oshi, a man from Enugu, saw the post, visited Kirikiri with lawyers, confirmed Ogbonnaya was from Abia, and reached out to Governor Alex Otti.
To Otti’s credit, he moved fast. Sent Abia’s Attorney General to verify the case, coordinated with Lagos and Ogun authorities, and on July 6, 2025, Ogbonnaya and Kolawole were finally released.
The reunion between Ogbonnaya and his mother after 26 years was heartbreaking. The man is now 48 years old. He went into prison at 22. His entire youth, his dreams, his freedom, everything was stolen from him by a system that didn’t care enough to get it right.
And the most painful part is that this is not an isolated case. There are countless Ogbonnayas in Nigerian prisons right now. People who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. People who couldn’t afford good lawyers. People the system chewed up and forgot about.
Governor Otti promised to help reintegrate both men into society. That’s extremely good and commendable. But what about the 26 years? What about the trauma? What about the life that was stolen? How do you compensate a man for that?
This is why I don’t have any faith in Nigeria’s justice system. It’s not built for justice. It’s built to crush the poor and protect the connected. And until that changes, stories like Ogbonnaya’s will keep happening.
I’m glad he’s free. I’m very glad he got to see his mother again. But I’m angry that it took 26 years and a TikTok video for anyone to care. This country will frustrate you to your grave if you let it.
And lest I forget; Governor Otti is such an amazing Governor.
Olubukola Ozone Olarewaju,FB Page
#OzoneWrites
