Nigerian Escapes Death by Hanging in Singapore

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A Nigerian by name, Adili Ejike, was a very lucky man after he escaped death following the decision of Singapore's supreme Court to void his earlier conviction for drug-related offences.

According to Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Ministry in Abuja on Wednesday, this is the first time in Singapore that a Nigerian convicted of possession of illicit drugs and sentenced to death would be set free.

The statement read in part, " Mr. Adili Chibuije Ejike earlier sentenced to death for importing nearly two-kilogramme of methamphetamine has been granted an acquittal by Singapore's Supreme Court and released with no outstanding charges.

"The Nigeria High Commission in Singapore in a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said 'a three-member panel that delivered the judgment was led by the Chief Justice of Singapore, Sundaresh Menon'

The letter was signed by Head of Mission in Singapore, High Commissioner Akinremi Bolaji.

According to the statement, " Ejike was arrested in November 2011 and since been behind bars till May 2019 when he was discharged and acquitted,"

The letter added, "The High Commission affirmed that the prosecution failed to establish that Ejike knew that the drug bundles in his suitcase were in his possession. In other words, Ejike was not guity of wilful blindness or deliberately shutting his eyes to the truth if his possession of the drugs.

" The acquittal of Ejike had been termed locally as a miracle of God and I am elated that his freedom from death happened under my watch here as the Head of Mission."

The letter however said, both the prosecution and defence agreed that he was in possession of the drugs, but that was sufficient to convict him and affirm the death sentence earlier passed on him by both the lower and appeliate courts.

According to report, Ejike tsaid his childhood friend in Nigeria gave him the bag that contained the drugs to be delivered to someone in Singapore.

The Nigerian mission said Ejike's claim raised an important issue about how drug peddlers had been using unsuspecting people as conduits to transport their  at the risk of the lives of the possessors of such substances.

The mission said, " There is a need for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join hands with other Ministries, Department and Agencies, especially the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Nigerian Immigration Service, to develop a framework to rehabilitate such Nigerians returning from abroad into the society."

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