According to a video on Nevon HQ, a man who was sentenced to death for armed robbery has said that hearing the judge declare his death sentence did not break him, but watching his mother collapse on the floor of the courtroom in anguish was the single most painful moment of his entire ordeal.
Olumuyiwa Ayodeji Adedeji made the emotional disclosure during an interview on the Fire City Podcast on the Nevon HQ platform, hosted by Oseni Rufai.
Ayodeji, who had already mentally prepared himself for the worst outcome after years of court adjournments, said that by the time judgment was delivered in 2016, he had reached a place of personal acceptance regarding whatever consequence his actions had brought upon him.
What he was not prepared for, he said, was his mother’s response.
In his words, Olumuyiwa Ayodeji said, “The judgement that came on me did not even matter because I believed is a consequence of what I have committed and I have learned to take responsibility of whatever that I have done.
“Because I knew is now up to God to take the final decision. But what touches me is my mom. In fact, it affected my mom that my mom had a partial stroke,” he said.
Ayodeji described how his mother, who was seated in the courtroom when the sentence was read, stood up from her seat and threw herself to the ground.
He said the judge made no acknowledgement of her distress and moved on immediately to the next case.
He recalled standing in the dock watching her and said the image remained with him throughout his years in prison.
The emotional and physical toll on his mother did not end in that courtroom.
Ayodeji revealed that she later suffered a partial stroke which he attributed to the trauma of the experience, and that she is still dealing with the effects.
He said it was only through what he described as the grace of God that she has been able to walk again on both legs.
Despite his own suffering behind bars, Ayodeji said he considers the impact on his mother as the heaviest burden of the entire experience, heavier even than the years he spent facing execution on death row at Kirikiri Maximum Prison……See More
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