afrol News, 27 June - Two Nigerians, Samuel Okoye, 37 and Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa, 40, were executed by firing squad in Indonesia on Friday after they had been convicted on attempting to smuggle 7kg of heroine into the country.

According to their lawyer, Bambang Sri Wahono, the convicts had contacted their wives before the execution, informing them that they "had just signed their death warrants."

The execution is the first to be carried carried out in Indonesia since 2004, although drug smuggling offences are punished by death. Since their conviction, the men who had been kept at a Nusa Nusakambangan island's maximum security prison in central Java, were executed by a firing squad of 12 people few kilometres from the prison.

Indonesian government said the "execution will teach foreign drug traffickers a lesson and discourage them from bringing drugs into the country," warning that "execution will not stop at the two Nigerians" who had been on death row since their conviction in 2001 for smuggling 3.8kg and 3.2kg of heroine.

In 2004, Okoye and Nwaolisa's pleas to the Indonesian President to spare their lives hit the rock.

Nigerian nationals have been linked to numerous drugs smuggling crimes in the world. In January last year, a 21-year-old Nigerian footballer Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, was among the two Africans hanged by Singapore authorities after they were found guilty of drug dealing.

Found guilty of trafficking 727 grams of heroine, the men were hanged despite hues and cries from human rights activists and a flurry of diplomatic moves to save the Nigerian's life. Singapore officials insisted that they must taste the death penalty, which hangs on those found with 15 grams of heroine or above.

The stateless African, the 35-year-old Okeke Nelson Malachy, was found culpable for being the recipient of Mr. Amara's smuggled heroine at the airport in November 2004.

It is said that heroine has more value in Singapore than any where else in the world, with a kilo costing over US $100,000. The Asian country has the strictest drug laws in the world, and so far executed at least 420 people on drug-related crimes.

However, in a rare case, a Congolese diplomat escaped execution after drug was discovered in a bag he was holding for a limping passenger. The passenger disappeared immediately the deal was leaked. Passengers' traveling with the diplomat held brief for him.

Indonesia's Attorney General, Hendarman Supandji, had earlier said his office planned to "speed up the execution" of 57 drug convicts, some of who had been on death row since 1994. But the Public Prosecutor's office put the record at 72, three of who have already been executed, one died of natural cause, five have had their sentences reduced to life while one benefited imprisonment reduction to 15 years.

Data from Indonesia's national anti-narcotics body showed an increasing hike in the number of criminal drug cases, from 17,355 in 2006 to 22,630. The number of offenders had also shot up from 31,635 in 2006 to 36,169.

Indonesian is estimated to have an estimated eight million drug addicts. Of this figure, 15,000 die annually.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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