Veteran Nollywood actor, Nkem Owoh, popularly known as Osuofia, has spoken out about the execution of his older brother, Bartholomew Owoh, under the then military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as one of the most painful moments of his life.
Bartholomew Owoh was one of three young Nigerian executed by a firing squad on April 10, 1985, by the Buhari military regime.
He was executed alongside Lawal Ojuolape and Bernard Ogedengbe for drug-related offences that were not originally punishable by death at the time they were committed.
Speaking in an interview on the Arise News Channel’s ‘The Interview’, aired Thursday, the veteran actor recounted the traumatic experience and how it shaped his view of justice during Nigeria’s military era.
“I was working with the Anambra Television that time, and I was so furious that I was shedding tears along the corridors,” he recalled.
Osuofia expressed his bitterness over the fact that the military regime had retroactively applied a new decree to impose the death penalty on offences committed before the decree came into effect.
“In fact, the thing that touched me most is that they had to shift the effective date of that decree,” he said. “You know, during the military era, they can just get out one decree and the next minute, it’s in operation.”
“So for them to backdate it to involve or include people who did not commit the offence within their own regime, but years back, I was very bitter.”
Nkem Owoh questioned the moral and legal basis of the decision to backdate the law, which ultimately cost his brother and others their lives.
“Why would it be shifted back to include people who didn’t commit the offence before the decree?” the Nollywood actor asked.
