True Story About Nigeria's Biggest Drug Lord

Iwuchuckwu Amara Tochi, who died chasing a dream

Becoming a professional footballer is every child's dream, even more so when this is the only way that can take you away from a reality made of misery, violence and abuse.

Playing football was also the dream of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi , a Nigerian child who grew up in the midst of a thousand difficulties and who, however, chasing a ball had shown he could do it.

Maybe not enough to chase a place in the most important championships in the world, but enough to be able to play in tournaments in Southeast Asia, where the millions do not circulate but where you can still become professionals.

He could not have imagined that he would face death , the victim of his naivety and unscrupulous men.

A story (unfortunately) like many others

After a very hard childhood, which sees his parents entrusting him to a church because of the serious poverty they face, Tochi joins a football club in Senegal, plays well and earns a place in Nigeria Under-14 who participates in the " West African Championship ".

But in Senegal local football is certainly not rich or full of opportunities and that is why the boy decides to move to Dubai. There is no UAE embassy in Nigeria, due to tense relations between the two countries, and the only way to obtain a residence permit is to go to Pakistan to get it, then take a train from Islamabad to Dubai. .

Or at least, that's what a self-styled agent tells Tochi, who leaves with the few savings of a lifetime for Pakistan only to find out on the spot that there is no embassy and - moreover - not even a train.

From hope to illusion

Desperate, he seeks help in the local church of Sant'Andrea, which provides him with food and a place to sleep.

The dream seems to set, but suddenly everything seems to take an unexpected and beautiful turn, like in a movie.

One Sunday, at the end of the mass, Tochi is approached by a man who looks like "Mr. Smith ". He is an engineer, and claims to belong to the same tribe as the young man, who indeed recognizes him as a footballer, recalling a penalty failed by Tochi in the Under-14 tournament in which he had participated.

Mr. Smith asks what a footballer is doing in Pakistan, given that the national sport is cricket and certainly not football, and slowly he gains the confidence of Tochi, who tells him his story and his failed project to achieve a residence permit for the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Smith seems impressed, and claims to want to help the young man pursue his dream: from time to time he brings him food, therefore also money. The two even go on a trip to Dubai together, but Tochi cannot obtain a visa as he does not have a bank account or any insurance.

The boy is heartbroken but Mr. Smith still has a solution: a friend in Singapore who could give him some money. No longer Dubai, therefore, but Singapore: professional football is always talked about, and moreover the residence permit should not be a problem. We can imagine the joy of poor Tochi, we can imagine his dreams finally one step away.

From dream to nightmare

The plane ticket and a couple of $ 100 tickets are put by Mr. Smith , who asks the boy - so eager to return the gesture - in exchange for a small and simple favor: to bring some medical herbs to a seriously ill friend, a friend who will be found at Singapore Changi Airport.

The young Nigerian accepts, trusting that good man who has done everything to help him: it is at that moment that his story will change forever, and will lead him to meet death instead of success in football.

In fact, when he arrives in Singapore, Tochi is waiting for Mr. Smith's friend, who should arrive on a flight from Indonesia: according to the agreements, the friend will meet the boy, will withdraw his medical herbs and give him a thousand dollars to to incur the first expenses.

Wait almost for a day: he does not know that Mr. Smith's friend's flight has been canceled, and having never traveled the world, he certainly cannot imagine that his waiting for more than twenty-four hours has suspected the local authorities.

And this is how the police approach the young Nigerian, who immediately proves to be collaborative, telling who he is and what he is doing there: in Singapore, without a minimum of money in your pocket, you are sent out of the country.

Obviously Tochi has only a hundred dollars in his pocket, but no problem: the friend he is waiting for will bring him some money to stay, as promised by Mr. Smith, which Tochi had in the meantime called receiving the order to wait confident.

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, guilty of naivety

There is enough to control the load, and it is here that the police find over 700 grams of heroin divided into a hundred capsules : for Tochi, however, there is an error, that is certainly not drugs, but medicine for sick friend of Mr. Smith, who in the meantime was in turn arrested as soon as he got off the flight.

This is Okeke Nelson Malachy, according to him who came to Singapore to negotiate the purchase of a second-hand car but who does not have credit cards or passports with him: or rather, what he has is clearly false.

Investigations on the SIM of his mobile phone also demonstrate a dense communication with Mr. Smith, who is registered on the phone as "Dogo" and whose true identity unfortunately will never be discovered.

It doesn't take long for the police to do two and two: Mr. Smith and Malachy are international drug dealers, and the young and naive Tochi ended up in the middle of a bigger story than he is.

Or at least, so it seems obvious to everyone except the Singapore authorities, who arrest both Malachy and Tochi: the boy is allowed to make a phone call; he calls home asking for help from his brother, who however will never say anything to his father - his mother died years ago - for fear of making him die of a broken heart.

Without possibility of escape

The process is one way. To the judge it is clear that Tochi did not know that the capsules he was carrying were heroin, as evidenced by his calm behavior in front of the authorities and having even swallowed a capsule in front of the police, an act aimed at showing that the one he was carrying was medicine and not certain drug.

Obviously he had felt ill and only a quick gastric lavage had saved his life. Yet, even though he didn't know she was heroin, Tochi had to know that there was something wrong with the judge: Mr. Smith had offered money for that job and the boy accepted without question.

Could it be that he didn't suspect anything? In short, according to the judge, Tochi could not have known that the load he was carrying was particular, and he should have ascertained its actual composition.

Malachy, on the other hand, was none other than Mr. Smith's hook: the amount of drug found would have brought him and Mr. Smith nearly one million US dollars, and during the trial he also admits that Tochi was in the dark about everything .

But that's not enough.

Both Malachy and Tochi are sentenced to death. The Nigerian President, the United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and many other humanitarian bodies repeatedly ask for grace or extradition for Tochi , guilty only of naivety, of having chased a dream, and of being arrested in one of the most severe countries in the world towards drug dealing.

No mercy

There is nothing to do, and on the morning of January 26, 2007 Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi is hanged . He's just over twenty, two have passed since his arrest.

The last hours of his life are spent crying, writing letters and telling his lawyer to tell whoever loved him to pray for him.

In the language of his tribe, his name meant "Grace of God".

Thus ends the dream of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, who as a child dreamed of emulating Jay Jay Okocha and who instead finds death in a Singapore prison without ever having been able to play as a professional.

Guilty of not having wanted to give up his dream.

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SOURCE

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