DNA test secured release of Nigerian on Indonesian death row – Lawyer

A United States-based Nigerian lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, who assisted in the release of a death row inmate, Emmanuel Ihejirika, from an Indonesian prison, has said DNA test proved vital in the latter’s freedom.

Ihejirika, who had spent 20 years in prison, was on death row before he was discharged and acquitted by the country’s Supreme Court.

The Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had on Saturday, 14, 2024, disclosed that Ogebe took up the case pro bono and won at the apex court.

The lawyer, who spoke exclusively to Saturday PUNCH, explained that Ihejirika was arrested over a fake Sierra Leonean passport.

He said the Nigerian Immigration Service lacked a retrieval database and his chamber had to resort to DNA testing to prove  Ihejirika’s innocence.

The international lawyer said the DNA helped in establishing the inmate’s relationship and true nationality.

He said, “Anyway, since he was arrested on a fake Sierra Leonean passport, we had to establish his true identity as a Nigerian. Unfortunately, Nigerian immigration didn’t have a retrieval database at the time, so we had to utilise DNA testing on him in Indonesia and on his family members in Ebonyi to establish his relationship and thus nationality.”

Earlier, Ogebe said Ihejirika became a prisoner in Indonesia after he was “unfortunately trafficked by drug cartels on a fake passport.”

He added that other Nigerians were languishing in the Asian country’s prisons, and in other countries.

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