I am not sure if Benjamin should be celebrating this result,cos Vietnam is the last place you want to
be in prison for life! There will come days when he truly wishes he was dead!
Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu was in June 2012 apprehended with 3.3 kilograms of the banned drug concealed in metal tubes and a laptop charger in his luggage as he flew to Tan Son Nhat in Vietnam.
When he was arrested, Ejiogu said he only planned to come to Vietnam to buy clothes to resell them in Nigeria and had no idea about the drug in his luggage. According to him, a man asked him to carry the tubes and the charger to Vietnam and that someone would pick them up.
A Vietnam court heard the case brought against him by Vietnam police in August 2013 and sentenced him to death, but he appealed the verdict. Vietnam Supreme Court then canceled the verdict, ordering a new investigation. Investigators could not track down the people who had used him as a drug mule.
According to Vietnam law, anyone convicted of smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in Vietnam face the death penalty.
The interesting thing here is Vietnam hardly ever overturns a death sentence in drug cases.For them to have done this,maybe Benjamin was truly innocent,they must have seen something that made them doubt the sentence,and for that alone,the sentence should have been a lot more lenient.In my opinion ,a life sentence in Vietnam is same as a death sentence!