Acquittal overturned for Nigerian in drug case
SINGAPORE – Finding no innocent explanation for a Nigerian man’s “numerous lies and omissions” in statements given to the police, the Court of Appeal yesterday overturned his acquittal and convicted him of trafficking nearly 2kg of methamphetamine.
Ilechukwu Uchechukwu Chukwudi,29, now faces the death penalty for the November 2011 offence.
He was acquitted of the charge last November by High Court Judge Lee Seiu Kin, but the prosecution appealed, arguing that Ilechukwu’s lies indicated guilt and that the judge had erred in his findings.
With the conviction, Ilechukwu now faces the same fate as the Singaporean stall assistant to whom he had passed the black luggage containing the Ice at a Clarke Quay bus stop.
Hamidah Awang, 49, who was caught at the Woodlands Checkpoint, was earlier found guilty by Justice Lee of attempting to export the drugs to Malaysia.
Yesterday, the apex court, comprising Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin and Andrew Phang, as well as Justice Tay Yong Kwang, said it is usually slow in overturning factual findings of the trial judge. But they found that in this case, the judge had “plainly erred” in not drawing an adverse inference against Ilechukwu, whose “excuses for the lies were wholly unsatisfactory and unbelievable”.
“There is no acceptable explanation for the lies save for his realisation of his guilt. To suggest that (Ilechukwu) was justified to lie as a defensive move would be to turn reason and logic on its head,” said Justice Chao, who delivered the verdict.
For instance, Ilechukwu had lied in a statement after his arrest at a budget hotel that he only brought one luggage to Singapore; he had brought two.
Ilechukwu had said that it was his first time travelling out of Nigeria and that it was for “a serious business trip” to buy second-hand laptops to sell back home. The apex court found it hard to believe that “he would do so without the (Singapore) contact’s name or contact details”, especially since Ilechukwu had described himself as “careful and particular”.
The Court of Appeal also addressed what the trial judge had felt to be inconsistent with Ilechukwu having knowledge of the drugs. The Nigerian might not have abandoned the luggage when there was a delay at immigration in Changi Airport because he might have preferred the possibility of legal sanction over the certainty of punishment that could await him from criminal drug lords, the appeal judges said.
On Ilechukwu leaving the luggage at the hotel lobby and returning 12 minutes later, the Court of Appeal felt that leaving it with a responsible third-party here posed a “minuscule risk” and to insist on dragging it everywhere would have drawn attention.
The “strongest point” in Ilechukwu’s favour was that he had prolonged his interaction with Hamidah — getting into her car and accepting her invitation to eat — after handing over the luggage, but the judges noted people do not always act in ways expected of them.
The trial judge seemed to have overlooked the fact that, under the Misuse of Drugs Act, Ilechukwu bore the burden of proving his non-knowledge of the drugs, the apex court said.
Justice Chao said the trial judge ought to have rejected Ilechukwu’s defence and his acquittal of the Nigerian “is wrong and against the weight of the evidence”.
