SENTENCED TO DEATH;
AN INNOCENT MAN STEPS OUT AFTER 24 YEARS IN PRISON; OLAIDE OLATUNJI SHARES HIS STORY OF SURVIVAL, FREEDOM AND HOPES.
HOW IT STARTED.
I trained as a photographer but back in the 80s I didn’t have enough photography work to sustain me so I worked with my father who traded in cattle. My father was an old man so I joined him and I used to go to the bush to buy the animals. I was married with two sons.
That year, as the time for the Ileya Festival drew closer, we were going to supply some companies with cattle so I had to go and buy them from Niger state. He listed all the things that I was going to buy – cows, rams and goats. I left Lagos on the 30th of May, 1988 to Gwari in Niger state. I had to go inside the bush to select the animals I wanted so that I would get a trailer to convey them to Lagos.
THE ARREST.