Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi
Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi
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Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi (1985–26 January 2007) was a Nigerian national convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore. At quantities above certain weight thresholds, which varies for different types of drugs, drug trafficking carries a mandatory death sentence under Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act, and despite pleas for clemency from Amnesty International, the United Nations, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as other individuals and groups, he was executed by hanging on 26 January 2007 in Changi Prison.

Tochi was born in Nigeria. He was given to his relatives at the age of five. He grew up and attended St. Anthony's Mission School in Ohafia, Abia State. In an interview with his lawyer, he stated that his brother dropped out of school to support his father. His mother died a couple of years later.

Having a passion for football, he joined a football club in Senegal and subsequently played for Nigeria in the West African Coca-Cola Cup Championships when he was 14.

Later, he sought to travel to Dubai to pursue his football career. According to the interview with his lawyer, he travelled to Pakistan to secure a visa before going to Dubai, as he was under the impression that a train service travels there; he would later find out that none existed.

He then sought help from St. Andrew's Church in Islamabad, where he was provided refuge. One Sunday, he met a man known as "Mr. Smith," who claimed to be a distant friend. Tochi claimed Smith gave him pocket money and food and offered to help him obtain a visa in Dubai. However, Tochi could not ultimately obtain the visa because he did not meet the appropriate requirements.

Smith then asked Tochi for a favour. He wanted him to deliver medicine for a sick friend in Singapore, saying that his friend would meet Tochi at Changi Airport and collect the medicine. Tochi alleged that Smith led him to believe that he was delivering African herbs, not heroin.

Tochi was arrested on 28 November 2004, in Changi Airport in Singapore while in transit. Authorities became suspicious after discovering he had spent more than 24 hours in transit. One hundred capsules of diamorphine were found on him with a total weight of 727.02 grammes (a bit over a pound and a half), estimated by authorities to be worth S$1.5m (US$970,000). Tochi claimed that the capsules he carried were for a friend and insisted they were African herbs that tasted like chocolate. He swallowed a capsule to prove this, and police took him to a local hospital where he was given a laxative to flush the capsule out of his system.

His arrest led to the arrest of another African drug figure, Okeke Nelson Malachy, who was the 'sick friend' of Mr. Smith, to whom Tochi had been instructed to deliver the 'African herbs'. Tochi was waiting for Malachy to arrive from Medan, Indonesia, but Malachy's flight had been delayed.

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