Lasun Alagbe
Only God and destiny now stand between a Nigerian man, Suleimon Olufemi, and death in faraway Saudi Arabia.
Well, the Saudi authorities and, most importantly a young lady, can save him from execution.
The lady is the daughter of a police officer who was killed during a mob action in 2002.
Olufemi, who was on the Lesser Hajj to Saudi that year, was caught among the mob and found guilty to the point of being sentenced to death.
He had had to, however, perch on the bridge between life and death because the Saudi law stipulates that it is the daughter that can grant him pardon – but only when she has cooked 18, an age she has now attained.
This is how Olufemi’s story is back to view as his parents are struggling hard to get him pardoned.
Olufemi, an Electrician, was born in Lagos on 20 April 1978 and embarked on Umrah to Saudi Arabia in 2002.
As part of the family’s efforts to save him, they have visited the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to urge the Federal Government to step appeal for clemency.
Olufemi’s 80-year-old father, Yavimaku Olufemi, and mother, Kikelomo, appealed to the Saudi authority to tamper justice with mercy and release their son.
They narrated their son’s ordeals, saying, on arrival at the airport in Jeddah, Suliamon called his friend, who he was scheduled to stay with in Jeddah, but the phone number was not going through, so he went to a place called Karantina where he met some Nigerians when he could not locate his friend.
An account added:
“Some days after Suliamon arrived in Saudi Arabia, he followed the Nigerians that offered him accommodation to a car wash in the Bab Sharif area of Jeddah, where many African nationals worked as car cleaners.
“Unfortunately, that day, there was a mob action which resulted in the death of a police officer.
“Authorities came to raid the location, and Suliamon Olufemi and 12 other Nigerian Nationals were among those arrested.
“He was sentenced to death in May 2005 following a closed trial which took place in the absence of legal or consular representation or adequate interpretation and translation facilities.
The other men, who were initially sentenced to five and seven years imprisonment, were later commuted to prison terms and lashes.”
