Widow: My son, falsely accused of robbery at 17, still on death row at 45

A 75-year-old Imo widow is renewing her plea for justice, insisting her son was wrongly convicted of robbery as a 17-year-old and has now spent 28 years on death row.

A mother’s anguish has resurfaced, nearly three decades on. Mrs Celestina Amadi, 75, is once again calling for justice for her son, David, insisting he was wrongly convicted of robbery as a teenager and has spent the last 28 years behind bars for a crime she says he never committed.

Speaking in an interview published by Punch Newspapers, the Imo State widow recounted how David was arrested in 1998 at just 17, while attending a social event. He was later charged alongside two others over a robbery allegation, despite what she described as a glaring lack of evidence.

According to Mrs Amadi, the complainant admitted in court that the attackers had worn masks, a detail she says undermines the case against her son. She also alleged that one of the co-defendants was tortured into making statements that implicated the others.

The case dragged through the courts for years. A High Court eventually sentenced the trio to death, and both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court upheld the conviction on subsequent reviews.

Mrs Amadi said the toll of the legal battle was immense, contributing to her husband’s declining health and his eventual death, a loss she still carries alongside her son’s imprisonment.

Now 45, David remains incarcerated, having spent more than half his life on death row. His mother says the family’s only wish is to see him freed and given a chance to finally rebuild the life that was taken from him.