The Ogun State Government has dismissed reports circulating on social media that a man identified as Ogbonna Ogbojionu was wrongly jailed for merely buying a stolen generator.
In a statement on Thursday, the state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade, said Ogbonna was actually convicted for armed robbery and murder following his involvement in a deadly attack on a petrol station in 2000.
According to the government, Ogbonna and two others; Sunday Oloyede and Kolawole Oladeji, stormed the ELF petrol station along the Abeokuta-Lagos Road on October 3, 2000, around 10pm.
During the robbery, they attacked two security guards, Yusuf Akanni and Moses Bankole, and stole a 10 KVA Lister generator. One of the guards, Bankole, died instantly after he was hit with an iron rod.
Days later, police officers intercepted a vehicle near the Ota Toll Gate carrying the stolen generator hidden beneath firewood and sachet water. Ogbonna and the other two men were inside the vehicle.
While his accomplices escaped, Ogbonna was arrested. He later escaped from police custody by climbing through the ceiling of his cell but was rearrested after the other suspects led authorities to him.
Ogungbade said Ogbonna gave two separate confessional statements at two different police stations. These statements were tendered in court and admitted without objection. He added that Ogbonna was represented by a lawyer throughout the trial but failed to present any witnesses in his defence.
Ogbonna was found guilty of armed robbery and murder and sentenced to death on January 14, 2003, by the Ogun State High Court.
However, in June 2021, Governor Dapo Abiodun exercised his powers of prerogative of mercy and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.
Ogbonna was eventually released on June 12, 2025, Democracy Day, after spending 22 years in prison.
The state government’s statement came after a viral social media narrative claimed Ogbonna was wrongly convicted and had spent over two decades in prison just for buying a stolen generator. Reacting to this, Ogungbade said:
“The story was carefully crafted to gain sympathy, presenting Ogbonna as an innocent man who was tortured into confessing that he bought a stolen generator. That account is completely false.”
The commissioner explained that eleven witnesses, including one of the surviving guards and the person who bought the stolen generator, testified against Ogbonna. The buyer, Ali Rihan, even returned the generator during the trial and identified Ogbonna as the person who sold it to him.
According to the state, Ogbonna also issued a receipt for the sale, an action that contradicts the claim that he was simply an innocent buyer. Yet during the trial, Ogbonna offered no defence and did not present the receipt to support his case.
The government described his social media campaign as disrespectful to the victim’s memory and said that Ogbonna’s release was an act of mercy, not an exoneration.
“Ogbonna has not shown remorse and is even trying to change the narrative to present himself as a hero,” the statement read.
“We call on him to quietly enjoy his freedom and allow the memory of the victim who died in his hands and whose life is true and irredeemable to rest in peace.”
Ogungbade advised the public to avoid being misled by viral posts that distort facts and court judgments. He said the clemency granted to Ogbonna was based on factors like time served, conduct in custody and reintegration prospects, not innocence.
