The family of late Bamidele Adeyemi has asked Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun to reject a request for state pardon by Ajayi Olayinka, who is serving a life sentence over Adeyemi’s death.
The appeal was contained in a petition dated September 25, 2026, signed by Adeyemi’s sister, Oluwayemisi Adesanya, and submitted to the governor’s office in Abeokuta.
Adeyemi, a father of two, was killed in Abeokuta in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown after he refused to unlawfully reopen a restricted community security gate in the Onikolobo area.
The family said Adeyemi was serving on a local community security committee when Olayinka and his accomplices attacked him with broken bottles and knives.
Olayinka and his co-defendant, Abayomi Oguntayo, were later prosecuted before the Ogun State High Court. In 2023, both were sentenced to life imprisonment at the Ibara Correctional Centre after a plea bargain reduced the original murder charge to voluntary manslaughter.
Olayinka subsequently sought executive clemency. In a February 21, 2025 letter to Governor Abiodun, his counsel argued that the killing was not premeditated and asked the governor to exercise his prerogative of mercy.
The family rejected that argument, saying it misrepresented the circumstances surrounding Adeyemi’s death.
“We have seen the clemency letter which falsely claims that Bamidele molested and provoked the convict and that the act was not premeditated. Your Excellency, this is a complete falsehood and an insult to the memory of our brother and to the judgment of the court,” the family said.
Adesanya said the killing also had a lasting impact on the family, adding that both of Adeyemi’s parents developed serious health complications following the loss and later died.
“This murder destroyed our family completely. Our parents developed terminal illnesses from the shock and have both passed on — our mother in 2025 and our father in 2026,” she said.
The family also opposed the argument that Olayinka’s educational achievement in prison should support his request for clemency.
“Rehabilitation does not rewrite the facts of a brutal murder. Getting a degree in prison does not restore the life that was violently snuffed out, nor does it bring back our parents who died of heartbreak,” the family stated.
The petition urged Governor Abiodun to uphold the court’s judgment and reject the application, arguing that granting pardon would deepen the family’s trauma and undermine the deterrent effect of punishment for violent crime.
The Ogun State Ministry of Justice and the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy had not issued an official response to the application as of the time of filing the report.
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