NIGERIA: PUBLIC EXECUTION IN BENIN OF TWO NIGERIAN FEDERAL ARMY OFFICERS

Record ID: 237212

  • Title: NIGERIA: PUBLIC EXECUTION IN BENIN OF TWO NIGERIAN FEDERAL ARMY OFFICERS
  • Date: 29th June 1968
  • Summary: OFFICER READING SENTENCE - SOUND ON FILM; CONDEMNED MEN BEING SHOT - NATURAL SOUND THROUGHOUT. MAJOR: "AS YOU TWO WERE COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, I CHARGE UNDER NA ORDINANCE ACT, SECTION 72 OF 1950, CIVIL OFFENCES. IN THAT YOU, AT OGWASHI-UKU ON OR ABOUT JULY 1968 DID CONSPIRE TOGETHER AND THEREBY KILLED FOUR INNOCENT CIVILIANS WITHOUT AN ORDER FROM THE MILITA
  • Embargoed: 14th July 1968 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BENIN, MIDWESTERN NIGERIA
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Reuters ID: LVAKBTN6H5FT4BAVH37XHRCS5H7
  • Story Text: THE SCAFFOLDS AGAINST WHICH TWO NIGERIAN FEDERAL ARMY OFFICERS WERE PUBLICLY EXECUTED IN BENIN, MIDWESTERN NIGERIA, ON THURSDAY HAVE NOW BEEN DISMANTLED, AND THE TWO MEN BURIED. THE OFFICERS WERE CONDEMNED TO DEATH LAST WEEK FOR THE MURDER OF FOUR CIVILIANS.

    THE MEN WERE EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD. THEIR DEATHS WERE WITNESSED BY HUNDREDS OF SPECTATORS, MANY OF WHOM HAD TRAVELLED TO BENIN FROM OUTLYING REGIONS.

    BOTH MEN WERE UNIDENTIFIED. THEY WERE SHOT SEPARATELY, WITH A THREE-MINUTE PAUSE BETWEEN THE TWO EXECUTIONS.

    THE CONDEMNED MEN HAD TAKEN BY LORRY TO A MAKESHIFT SCAFFOLD OF 24 SAND-FILLED OIL DRUMS AND TIED TO TWO PILLARS BEFORE THE EXECUTION. THE OFFICERS WERE FOUND GUILTY OF UNLAWFULLY KILLING TWO BARCLAYS BANK OFFICIALS, A POLICE INSPECTOR AND A CHIEF PRISON WARDER, AT OGWASHI-UKU IN MIDWESTERN NIGERIA. THE NEW CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE NIGERIAN ARMY, BRIGADIER HASSAN USMAN KATSINA, SAID THE EXECUTIONS WERE INTENDED AS A DETERRENT AGAINST ATROCITIES ... RECENTLY HE TOLD FEDERAL NIGERIAN TROOPS: "WE ARE NOT GODS SIMPLY BECAUSE WE CARRY WEAPONS AND CAN SHOOT WITH THEM."
    BOTH MEN WERE VIRTUALLY NAKED, AND TIED FIRMLY TO THE STAKES SUPPORTING THEM. MANY ONLOOKERS CLOSED THEIR EYES AS THE SHOTS RANG OUT. AND SEVERAL PEOPLE FAINTED.

    AN ARMY MAJOR READ THE CHARGES BEFORE THE ORDER TO FIRE WAS GIVEN.
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