The tale of 21-year-old football player Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, who left Nigeria to travel to Senegal, Dubai, and Pakistan in hopes of pursuing a career in the sport in Singapore. His agent gave him instructions to bring what he believed to be herbs to an unidentified football player in Singapore, only to find out later that they were actually drugs. This took place under the Obasanjo administration. The youngster was inspired to travel from Nigeria to Singapore for football trials after receiving optimistic news from a football club. Anti-death penalty campaigners gathered outside Changi jail on January 26, 2007, in the evening, carrying candles and roses, in the hopes that their desperate plea would persuade the Singaporean government to spare the life of 21-year-old Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi.
This brief hope was quickly destroyed when it was revealed by Singapore’s Central Narcotic Bureau that Amara had died by hanging following his conviction for drug trafficking—a crime that many people think he did not commit. Worldwide indignation sprang from this. 48 hours prior to the execution, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was contacted by the United Nations and the Nigerian government, represented by then President Olusegun Obasanjo, to request leniency, but this request was turned down. Rather, the head of Singapore stated that it was a serious decision.
His youth and playing days in football:
Tochi had a lifelong desire to play football. It was his passion and a means of getting away from the miserable life he had grown weary of. At the age of five, he was forced to move in with a relative and attend St. Anthony’s Mission School in Ohafia, Abia state. He was born in 1985. However, in order to support their father, his brother left school. When Tochi was younger, he considered football to be a source of income to lift his family out of poverty in addition to being a hobby. Tochi began his professional career in Senegal at the age of 14, when he represented Nigeria in the West African Coca-Cola Cup Championships. He then returned a significant amount of his salary to his family at home for assistance.
Tochi made the decision to travel to Dubai in an attempt to secure a better placement since he thought the city would provide him with a more fruitful football career. He made the decision to travel to Pakistan in the hopes of obtaining a visa and a train ticket to Dubai. He didn’t realize there was no such rail service until he arrived. When Tochi was unable to carry out his plan, he went to an Islamabad church for assistance and was given sanctuary. He met Mr. Smith, a fellow Igbo Nigerian, there, and that encounter would forever alter the path of his life. Smith agreed to assist Tochi in obtaining a visa for Dubai, while also giving him some food and pocket money.
Yet, since Tochi did not fulfill the prerequisite, all attempts to do so were unsuccessful. Smith asked Tochi whether he would rather travel to Singapore to visit his ailing friend and assist with the delivery of African herbs. Tochi will be able to resume his football career while in Singapore by submitting an application for trials at local clubs. Smith added that Tochi will also receive $2,000 from her ailing friend Okeke Nelson Malachy, who was scheduled to travel from Indonesia. Tochi, considering this a good chance to escape Pakistan, where he was stuck, thought the arrangement made sense. At approximately 1:45 p.m. on November 27, 2004, Tochi touched down at Changi Airport in Singapore.
He had been instructed that the package included African plants, so he was meant to meet Malachy, who was arriving by plane from Indonesia, and give it to her. But after spending a considerable amount of time waiting at the airport lounge, Smith called to let them know that Malachy would be arriving late because he had missed his flight. He made the decision to check into a hotel at the Ambassador Transit Hotel and wait. But there were none accessible, so he made the decision to hold off till he could. It had been over a day by the time one became available.
The police were notified by the receptionist, in accordance with protocol, that a person who had been in the transit area for more than 24 hours was present. Tochi claimed that he didn’t currently have the $2,000 needed to be given admission into Singapore when the airport police arrived and questioned him. He continued by saying he also planned to talk to the football federation to ask for help in getting into any of the clubs there. Tochi waited for Malachy to bring him “African Herbs” at Changi Airport for over 20 hours. After that, the police searched Tochi and discovered that he had roughly 100 capsules. When he inquired about their purpose, Tochi told him they were African plants that, when eaten, would provide energy.
He also mentioned that he was meant to give it to Malachy. Tochi had to be taken to the hospital after swallowing one of the capsules, where he was given a laxative to help him pass the substance, in order to demonstrate to the authorities that it was safe. After being brought back to the hotel, Tochi was instructed to call Smith. The latter assured him Malachy will be there shortly. Central Narcotics Bureau officers had been called by then. More than 300 grams of h£roin were found within the capsules when they were cut open. Tochi was requested to call Smith again, and this time, without mentioning the police, he verified that Malachy had reached Singapore and was standing by a café to pick up the box.
When the police arrived, they also arrested him. When it became apparent to Tochi that he was in major legal danger, one of his first actions was to phone his brother in Nigeria. The authorities were unable to identify Mr. Smith, even though they were able to confirm that he was in Pakistan. Section 17 of the Misuse of Drugs Act in Singapore states that anyone discovered in possession of more than two grams of heroin is considered to be involved in trafficking. According to Tochi’s defense, he was not capable of knowing that the capsules included meat. Had he done so, he would not have spent more than a day at the transit area. Additionally, he would have either fled the hotel or disposed of the drugs had he known that the police had been contacted. The defence further pointed out that Tochi consumed the pill to convince the authorities that, despite what he had been told, the contents were African herbs rather than heroin.
In his commentary, the judge, Mr. Kan Tin Chiu, stated that he believed Tochi was unaware that the man referred to as “Mr. Smith” was asking him to convey drugs. He concluded as follows in paragraph 42 of the 2005 SGHC233 ruling: He did not specifically demonstrate that he was aware that the capsules contained diamorphine. Nothing indicated that Smith had informed him they contained diamorphine or that he had discovered it on his own. In spite of this, the judge claimed Tochi ought to have realized that something dark was happening when he was promised $2,000 in the first place.
He claimed that Tochi should have been cautious about Smith’s promise of that amount as he wasn’t a very wealthy man and was only helping to deliver a box to someone else. The first accused had arranged for bogus visas and endorsements to be placed into his passport in order to ease his trips, thus it was clear from his statement that Tochi knew Smith was a man who would breach the law. He must have realized that, in exchange for enduring the small annoyance of having to meet Marshal at the airport terminal and give him the pills, Smith was promising him far more than was fair. Before agreeing to give the capsules, he ought to have demanded to see them and be guaranteed of their contents. He also had plenty of opportunity to inspect the capsules while in possession of them, but he chose not to do so. The judge further observed that Tochi was not a young impressionable person because, as a young man, he had fled Nigeria to fend for himself in Senegal before returning to Pakistan.
Malachy claimed he didn’t know Smith or Tochi, but the judge rejected his defense in his case. He stated that his sole purpose for visiting Singapore was to purchase secondhand cars to resell back to South Africa. Despite the fact that many people mistakenly believed him to be Nigerian because of his name, it was eventually established that his South African identity was a fake, and he was proclaimed stateless. The judge agreed with the prosecution that the two had violated the Misuse of Drug Act and meant to smuggle the narcotic into the nation. As a result, the judge condemned them to death. The pair’s execution sentence, especially for Tochi, who many believed to be innocent, provoked a backlash and indignation around the world. Even though the matter was sent to the Appeal Court automatically, many people thought it was just a formality, and he eventually lost the appeal. It was a countdown from that point on.
In a statement, Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, stated that Tochi’s guilt could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and that he should not be put to death.
The first section of Tochi’s narrative ends here. Keep checking back on our page for Part 2.
