Nigeria’s oldest prisoner on death row released, abandoned at hospital

Nigeria’s oldest prisoner on death row, Celestine Egboluchi, who regained freedom on Thursday evening after he was granted state pardon by the Imo State government, has been abandoned at the hospital.

Egboluchi, who will be 101 years in August this year, was jailed in year 2000 alongside his only son, Paul, at the Enugu Maximum Prison, after certain members of his Amachalla –Owerri, Akokwa, Ideato local government of Imo state allegedly conspired against him. They were alleged to have plotted the death of their relation, Cyril Igbokwe, a businessman, who then resided in Port Harcourt, Rivers state with Paul. However, while Egboluchi was pardoned, Paul has remained in incarceration.

Immediate past governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha approved his pardon before he left office last month. Celestine was rushed to the hospital by a nongovernmental organisation, Global Society for Anti-Corruption (GSAC), who championed his pardon from prison on grounds of deteriorating health. It was further gathered that the centenarian suffered another trauma as his house was demolished by those who accused him and his son of plotting the killing of Igbokwe.

President of the GSAC, Frankline Ezeona has pleaded with governments, organisations and good spirited Nigerians to come to the aid of the centenarian so that he would be rehabilitated and pleaded that his son should also be granted pardon to look after his father. Pleading the innocence of her father and brother in the supposed crime for which they were incarcerated, the only surviving daughter of Pa Celestine, Chisom Celestine, thanked all that help to see to the release of her father but pleaded that her brother be released.