Nigerians Travelling Abroad Warned As Singapore Frees Nigerian Sentenced To Death For Drug Trafficking

Nigerians Travelling Abroad Warned As Singapore Frees Nigerian Sentenced To Death For Drug Trafficking

A Nigerian citizen sentenced to death by hanging in Singapore for importing 2kg of Meth into Singapore has been acquitted and released.

In what can be described as a rear occasion, the Singapore Supreme Court acquitted Adili Chibuike Ejike and ordered his release with no outstanding charges, it was learnt.

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.

The mission said that Ejike’s freedom from death by hanging by the court made history as the first time such a decision was made in a case involving a Nigerian.

Ejike was arrested in November 2011 and has since been behind bars till May 2019 when he was discharged and acquitted.

The letter partly read:

“The High Commission affirmed that the prosecution had failed to establish that Ejike knew that the drug bundles in his suitcase were in his possession.

“In order words, Mr Ejike was not guilty of willful blindness or deliberately shutting his eyes to the truth if his possession of the drugs.

“The acquittal of Mr Ejike has 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 trial focused on his knowledge of the substance; while the defence claimed he had no knowledge of the substance, the prosecutor claimed he knew about it.

“However, both the prosecutor and the defence agreed that he was in possession of the drugs, which was sufficient to convict him and affirm the death sentence earlier passed on him by both the lower and appellate courts.”

Ejike according to the commission, said his childhood friend in Nigeria gave him the bag that contained the drugs to be delivered to an unspecified person in Singapore.

The mission pointed out that Ejike’s claim raised an important issue about how drug peddlers are using unsuspecting people as conduits to transport their consignments, at the risk of the lives of the possessors of such substances.

It therefore, called for joint awareness campaign for Nigerians travelling abroad not to accept to travel with any bags or container that they have not personally packed by themselves for the journey.