JAKARTA: A Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo, and four foreign nationals were executed by Indonesian authorities for drug trafficking-related offences.
Another Nigerian, Mr. Solomon Chibuike Okafor, was also executed. He was however being classified as a citizen of Malawi because he was arrested using a Malawian passport bearing Namaona Denis.
An Indonesian national was also executed for the same offence after they had all been convicted between 2000 and 2011.
Twelve other Nigerians remain on death row in the Asian country which resumed executions in 2013 after an unofficial moratorium from 2008.
Amnesty International and other organisations had pleaded for clemency for the condemned prisoners: Mr. Namaona Denis (Nigeria/Malawi), Ms. Rani Andriani (Indonesia), Mr. Daniel Enemuo (Nigeria), Ms. Tran Thi Bich Hanh (Vietnam), Mr. Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira(Brazil) and Mr. Ang Liem Soei (Netherlands).
Five of them, including Enemuo were executed at the high security prison on the Nusakambangan Island, off the main island of Java while the Vietnamese woman was executed in Boyolali district in Central Java. Five, asides the Dutchman, were convicted for attempting to smuggle hard drugs into Indonesia while he was convicted for operating a factory producing ecstasy. All had lost their appeals in December and were executed by firing squad early yesterday morning.
Indonesia’s Attorney General, Mr. H.M Prasetyo, insisted the executions were carried out in accordance with the law and were “not something pleasing or fun.
Indonesia must be saved from narcotics…this is a crime against humanity that damages the morals of the younger generation,” he said after the executions which have now caused a diplomatic row between Indonesia and Brazil and Netherlands as both nations have recalled their ambassadors in protest.”
Nigeria itself was at loggerheads with the international community following the execution of two condemned prisoners by the Edo State Government in 2013.
Resuming the executions has again highlighted the fate of at least 12 other Nigerians who remain on death row in Indonesia with about 100 serving various jail terms.
Most Asian countries apply the death sentence for drug trafficking offence.
A Nigerian diplomat who spoke off record, lamented that despite all the campaign against drug trafficking, some Nigerians choose to attempt to traffic drugs outside the country.
“What can we do for them aside pleading for leniency? When you know that the penalty for trafficking drugs to these nations is death, and you go ahead anyway, it is like signing your own death warrant,” the diplomat said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in its reaction, said it received the news of the execution with sadness despite pleas for clemency.
It also clarified that Namaona Denis was a Nigerian but was arrested with a Malawian passport.
It added that the federal government would continue to engage the Indonesian government with the aim of concluding a Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) that could enable other Nigerian prisoners in Indonesian jails to return home to complete their jail terms.
