Students at Eastlea
Community School in Newham in east London are celebrating the release
of a Nigerian man who spent over nine years in jail - including more than a
year on death row - after originally being detained when he was just 16 years
old.
Moses Akatugba, now 26, was arrested in 2005 for armed robbery and was
tortured into signing a confession and sentenced to death. He was released on 2
June after the outgoing Nigeria's Delta State’s Governor Emmanuel
Uduaghan granted him a pardon.
Akatugba has been the
subject of a long-running campaign from Eastlea students who last year took
part in a "pliers" demonstration outside the Nigerian High Commission
in central London.
Sixteen Eastlea students
brandishing giant pliers’ placards went to the Commission on 26 June 2014 - the
UN
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - to highlight how
Akatugba was tortured when he was originally detained on suspicion of stealing
the mobile phones.
Part of the torture
reportedly endured by Moses was having his fingernails and toe-nails torn out
with a pair of pliers. Eastlea students were confronted outside the Commission
by officials who eventually agreed to receive an appeal from Amnesty about
Akatugba's case.
Akatugba, said he felt
"overwhelmed" when he heard the news of his pardon and he has thanked
Amnesty supporters for their efforts (see below). Akatugba has been a key case
in Amnesty's global Stop Torture campaign and in total more than 800,000 people
worldwide had asked Governor Uduaghan to commute his death sentence.
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