ThankGod Ebhos, 54, Who Cheated Hangman At The Gallows In Benin Prison Freed After 17 years In Death Row

On 16 June 2013, ThankGod Ebhos was dragged to the gallows in Benin Prison, Nigeria. He was forced to watch as four men were hanged.

His life was spared only because at the last moment, the prison authorities realized that his death sentence required a firing squad. It had not been prepared.

The Nigerian furniture maker has been on death row for 17 years, convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to death by a special tribunal in 1995. Under the military government of the time, ThankGod was denied the right to appeal. He appealed against his conviction on several grounds, including that his confession was obtained through torture and that his lawyer quit during the trial, leaving him with no one to represent him in court. ThankGod had been in prison since 1988.

His son, Solomon Ebhogadhe, only learned that his father was about to be put to death when he read a local newspaper report that four men had been hanged.

“The morning after the four executions I knew that my dad was on death row,” he told Amnesty International last year. “The article said there was still one person at risk of execution and I knew it was him. My two eldest sisters went down to the prison to try and find out what was happening.”

However, officials say ThankGod Ebhos has been freed after 19 years on death row in Nigeria.

Human rights lawyers filed an appeal noting he had been convicted while the country was under a military dictatorship notorious for unfair trials and torturing confessions from prisoners.

A court of the Economic Community of West African states in June ruled that Ebhos should be freed.

Amnesty International said he was released from jail on Friday.

Nigeria had 1,039 people on death row last year.