Singapore Snubs Nigeria, Others; Executes Tochi Iwuchukwu

SINGAPORE yesterday snubbed Nigeria, the United Nations, Amnesty International, and a host of other anti-death penalty activists when it hanged convicted Nigerian, Tochi Amara Iwuchukwu (21), and one Nelson Malachy Okeke (35), said to be stateless. Both were hanged at dawn yesterday.

Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau confirmed the executions in a statement.

"The appeals of both Tochi and Malachy to the Court of Appeal and to the President (S.R. Nathan) for clemency have been turned down. Their sentences were carried out this morning at Changi Prison," it said.

Last Tuesday President Olusegun Obasanjo in a letter appealed to Singapore for clemency on behalf of Tochi. A statement from his office said that "President Olusegun Obasanjo has sought the personal intervention of the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, in the imminent execution of a Nigerian, Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, in Singapore," adding that the President "had asked that the death sentence be commuted to imprisonment."

In reply, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote to President Obasanjo to explain why his government was rejecting his appeal for clemency.

"Mr. Tochi has committed a serious offence under Singapore law," Lee said, adding that the amount of drugs he carried amounted to more than 48,000 doses of heroin on the streets.

Lee said that his government "takes a firm stance against drugs to deter Singaporeans and others from importing drugs into Singapore or using the country as a transit hub for narcotics," and had made its position publicly known."

And in Lagos, Tochi's lawyer accused the government doing too little, too late to help his client. The lawyer, Princewill Akpakpa who is also head of litigation at the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) said "the Nigerian government just woke up at the eleventh hour... belatedly writing letters to authorities in Singapore" to grant him clemency, said in a televised interview after the execution.

Akpakpa said that several letters he wrote last year to authorities in Nigeria, including the parliament, after Tochi was convicted, were neither acknowledged nor acted upon.

"The Nigerian governnment failed woefully. It did not look at the merit of Tochi's case," he said.

"Tochi did not know the content of the parcel that was given to him," at the airport in Dubai for delivery in Singapore, said the lawyer, who said he visited Singapore several times and led several campaigns in favour of Tochi after his conviction.

A Nigerian embassy spokeswoman told AFP they had informed Tochi's family about the execution and are waiting for instruction on what to do with the body.

In Geneva, Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Tochi's trial did not respect legal safeguards around the presumption of innocence.

Singapore law provides that a person caught in possession of illegal substances is assumed to be trafficking, thus putting the burden of proof on the accused.

"It is a fundamental human right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty," Alston said.

Tochi was arrested trying to smuggle 727.02 grammes (more than 25 ounces) of heroin through Changi Airport in November 2004. He said he came to Singapore to try his luck at football clubs.

About 10 activists and sympathisers held a sombre overnight vigil outside the suburban prison compound, hanging Tochi's football kit on the wall above photographs of him surrounded by candles.

Shortly after 6:00 am (2200 GMT), the time when prisoners are normally hanged, each protester laid a bunch of red roses in front of the photographs.

Malachy was charged as an accomplice.

Under Singapore's tough anti-drug laws, the death penalty is mandatory for anyone caught trafficking more than 15 grammes of heroin, 30 grammes of cocaine or 500 grammes of cannabis.

Tochi said he was given a bag containing the substance at Dubai airport to pass on to a man in Singapore but was unaware it contained heroin.

Sphere: Related Content