Free Nigerian prisoner

Patrick Okoroafor was just 14 years old when he was arrested in May 1995. Two years later, he was sentenced to death for robbery, along with six others. He did not have the right to appeal and was reported to have been tortured while in police detention.

In 2001, his sentence of death was pronounced “illegal, null and void”, but he was never released. He remains locked up "during the pleasure of the Governor of Imo State" (at the discretion of the Imo State Governor) - effectively in indefinite detention - in Aba prison, Abia state, having spent almost half his life in detention.

“Patrick only went to the police station because the police wanted to inspect a car our mother had bought from one of the other suspects. That is when they arrested him. We tried to get him released, but the police refused,” says his brother. He claims Patrick was tortured by the Nigerian police, who beat him and pulled out his teeth with pliers.

Along with one of the six other co-defendants, Chidiebere Onuoha, who was 15 at the time of arrest, Patrick petitioned for clemency on grounds of age. On 18 July 1997, Patrick's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment but Chidiebere Onuoha and the five other men were publicly executed.

Prison has also had serious consequences for Patrick's health; he suffers from asthma attacks described by prison authorities as "frequent and life-threatening" and his condition "worsens daily".

In November 2001, Patrick pleaded for pardon, writing: "The tribunal ritual was a nightmare to me because I’m totally innocent of the charges levelled against me, I have spent these years of undeserved incarceration crying, praying and reading…” His plea was rejected by the Imo State Governor in March 2002.

Amnesty International, along with the Nigerian Bar Association and Nigerian NGOs, has called for his release.