Three Nigerians sentenced to death in Malaysia for...

Three Nigerians sentenced to death in Malaysia for dadah trafficking in 1995 are seeking to revise the decision of the Federal Court affirming their penalty. The motion by technician Johnson Oshodi, civil servant Tunde Apatira, and businessman Oladotun Lukmanu Umaru was filed by counsel Karpal Singh at the Federal Court registry.
Karpal said the Federal Court, in dismissing the Nigerians' appeals on June 24, 1999, had "very seriously misdirected itself" in upholding the findings of the High Court when the prosecution had failed to prove that they knew the drugs recovered from their stomachs were heroin. Oshodi, Apatira and Umaru were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Penang High Court on June 30, 1995, for trafficking in heroin at the Butterworth Hospital, in Penang on Aug 13, 1990, by stuffing it into pellets and swallowing them.
Oshodi had 118gm, Apatira 232gm and Umaru 268gm. Citing a Court of Appeal's decision on June 11, acquitting mechanic Toh Su Kuan who was sentenced to death for trafficking in dadah found strapped to his body, Karpal said the Nigerians' case "comes squarely within the proposition of the law quoted" in Toh's case.
The Court of Appeal freed Toh (who was also represented by Karpal) on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to show he knew the packets strapped to his body was heroin.