The Amnesty International (AI) Nigeria has protested plans by the Indonesian government to execute five Nigerians and others on drug-related offences.
Leading a protest march to the Indonesian Embassy in Abuja, where it submitted a letter, AI said that it had received credible reports that dozens of death row prisoners could be executed as soon as this weekend, many of them for drug-related offences.
AI’s interim Country Director Makmid Kamara stated that the group’s letter basically calls on the Indonesian government to halt the executions of at least five Nigerians and 10 other people who are at risks in the Asian country.
Kamara added that the protest was not just a Nigerian, but global campaign, and that as an organisation, AI is opposed to death penalty under any circumstance.
His words: “We are urging the President of Indonesia and the Indonesian government that the people at risk of execution are commuted transferred to prison terms rather than the death penalty.
Letter we submitted is basically calling on the Indonesian government to halt all plans to carry out executions of at least five Nigerians and 10 other people who are at eminent risks of execution in Indonesia.
This is not the first time that Nigerians in Indonesia are at risk of being executed, Nigerians have been executed in the past for drug related offences and Amnesty International opposes the death penalty under all circumstances and we don’t think that drug related offences are serious crimes to warrant the death penalty.
So, we are calling on the Indonesian government and all governments across the world to abolish the death penalty, to change the death penalty to prison terms especially for those who are currently at risk of execution.
We want the Nigerian authorities and people to also put pressure on the Indonesian government to save the lives of these Nigerians as well as the other nationalities as risk of being executed.
This is the first time that Amnesty International in Nigeria together with our supporters and activists are calling on the government to ensure that people at risk of executions are not executed.”
Kamara also stated that “Indonesian President Joko Widodo will be putting his government on the wrong side of history if he proceeds with a fresh round of executions.
The President Widodo’s era was supposed to represent a new start for human rights in Indonesia. Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the country’s democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice.
Amnesty International has learned that at least a dozen death row prisoners could be executed as soon as this weekend, many of them for drug offences.
The organisation is also concerned that some of the prisoners who could face the firing squad were convicted in manifestly unfair trails and have not submitted clemency request to the President.
Representative of the Ambassador, in charge of Political Sections, Indra Noer, promised to pass the AI’s message to the ambassador and their home government in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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