INDONESIA. 20 NIGERIANS FACE EXECUTION

September 1, 2008: Twenty Nigerian citizens are currently awaiting the hangman’s nose in Indonesia for drug-related offences. The authorities in the country insisted at the weekend that all was now set to execute the Nigerians.
The development came as the Federal Government pleaded that the lives of the affected Nigerians be spared. The plea was made on behalf of the Federal Government by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Tijani Kaura, who spoke at a farewell luncheon for the outgoing Indonesian envoy to Nigeria, Nurhadi Djazuli. Nigerian Tribune gathered that the latest plea to the Indonesian authorities to allow the affected Nigerians to come and serve their sentences in Nigeria was the third in less than three months. Djazuli said the law of his country was sacrosanct on the issue of drug offences while responding to the pleas made on behalf of the Federal Government in respect of the 20 condemned Nigerians. The 60-year-old envoy preferred to speak on the pleasant bilateral relationship that he said existed between his country and Nigeria and foreclosed any attempt at saving the lives of the affected Nigerians. Djazuli reminded Kaura that “both countries firmly adhere to the Bandung spirit and the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement in governing the relations among nations, including respect of each other’s sovereignty in the internal affairs of other countries.” He expressed the belief that there were ample opportunities to broaden and deepen the bilateral relationship between the two countries in the years to come. Speaking on the issue while begging for mercy for the convicts, Kaura noted that Nigeria was aware that Indonesian law was sacrosanct, adding that the country was appealing that justice should be tempered with mercy in respect of the affected Nigerians. “We are aware your laws are sacrosanct. But we beg you to temper justice with mercy with regard to Nigerians living in Indonesia. We beg your intervention in that regard when you get back to your country,” Kaura told Djazuli. It will be recalled that Samuel Iwuchukwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa were on June 26, 2008 executed by Indonesian authorities for drug trafficking. This was despite pleas for stay of execution or commutation of their death sentences by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, as well as the summoning of the outgoing Indonesian Ambassador, Djazuli, to his (Maduekwe’s) office on May 30, 2008 for his home government to temper justice with mercy.                     (Sources: Nigerian Tribune, 01/09/2008)