Singapore Catholic Prison Ministry withheld details of executed Nigerian's funeral as his name appear on crematorium website

Nigerian national, Chijioke Stephen Obioha, who was first arrested in 2007, was executed in the early hours of Friday, November 1th, in Changi Prison, Singapore after last ditch criminal motion was thrown out by the Court of Appeal on Thursday evening.

Human Rights advocate and Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign member, Mr Ravi contacted Mr Jimmy Yuen, RCPM's Chairman, at about 10am on Friday morning to request more details about the
mass and burial. Mr Jimmy replied that it would be
held on Saturday and promised to give Mr Ravi the
details once it was finalized. As Mr Jimmy did not get
 back to Mr Ravi, Mr Chen contacted RCPM's
Spiritual Director Fr Kenny Tan in the evening to seek
 confirmation. The Priest reassured Mr Chen that he
would let him know of the details, which were still
being firmed up.

 At about 9pm, the Priest confirmed that the Singapore Prison
Service (SPS) would release Chijioke's body to the RCPM who
will hold a funeral mass service for him in the afternoon.
However, he admitted to Mr Chen that he had to keep the
details of the funeral confidential. Mr Chen then questioned the
Priest about as to why it had to be kept Confidential but he
didn't reveal any more.

  Mr Ravi, who has been fighting death row cases since 2003,
shared that never before had there been such a bizarre situation
where a client's lawyer isn't not privy to information about his
client's funeral. This, in spite, of the fact that Mr Chen is in
contact with Chijioke's family and was the one who gave
authorization, on behalf of the Obiohas, to let RCPM conduct the
funeral in the first place.

 

 Despite many Catholics ringing up their churches and the
Ministry to ask about the details of the funeral, no concrete
information on the mass service materialized.
It was only at about 3pm on Saturday that Mr Ravi was directed
to a listing on the Mandai Crematorium website which stated
that Chijioke's body was going to be cremated at 1530hrs. In
an emotional Facebook post, Mr Ravi wrote:

 "Just saw this on Mandai crematorium website!
It's so heartbreaking to see the amount of effort made to
completely erase a person.Not only does the Roman Catholic
Prison Ministry not want anyone to know the information on the
funeral services but also does not want any friends of Chijioke
to mourn for him and show their last respect. It's like they want
to make it like he never existed at all.
Even his name is spelt wrongly on the list....almost signifying
that judicial errors are inevitable but death penalty is
irreversible!
Rest in Peace Chijioke : Om Shanthi"

 Chijoke's younger brother has confirmed that neither he nor the
Obioha family had expressed any desire to RCPM to keep the
details of the funeral 'confidential.' He also said that it was
RCPM's decision not to disclose details of the funeral was
'wicked'

Source: Ravi M Ravi/ The Online Citizen