Obioha: executed for drug trafficking

Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian,  was executed early Friday morning in Singapore for  drug trafficking.

Obioha was arrested on 9 April,  2007 with more than 2.6 kilograms of cannabis which was more than the statutory amount of 500 grams presumed as drug trafficking in Singapore.

The Singaporean government rejected last last-minute appeal by Amnesty International to spare Obioha from the gallows in carrying out the execution.

“A 38-year-old male Nigerian national, Chijioke Stephen Obioha, had his death sentence carried out on 18 November 2016 at Changi Prison Complex,” Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement.

Back home,  the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa described the execution as heartbreaking, while reiterating calls on Nigerians to desist from criminal activities like drug peddling.

In a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun in Abuja, Dabiri-Erewa, “While we regret the death sentence passed on the Nigerian, we once again appeal to Nigerians to avoid crimes like drug trafficking with most countries especially in Asia declaring zero tolerance for drug trafficking,” Dabiri-Erewa stated.

She asked Nigerians to avoid drug peddling in their host countries as laws of countries, whether acceptable or not, will be difficult to influence.