Nigerian on death row in Indonesia sends final message to lover

A Nigerian awaiting execution in Indonesia for drug smuggling has written a heart-rending letter to his lover to bid her a final bye. Raheem Agbaje-Salami, 42, was moved on Wednesday to an island off the southern coast of Java where he is due to be executed with nine other inmates this month.He had been held in a prison in East Java.

Agbaje-Salami in the letter to his Indonesian girlfriend, Angela Intan, asked her to be strong and have faith in God.

“I want to thank and say goodbye to my beloved sweetheart, Angela Intan, who has stood beside me through happiness and sadness,” he said.

“Thank you for everything, for the time we spent together. Knowing and loving you has been a gift and even though it was only for a short time it has had a deep meaning in my life.”

Agbaje-Salami was sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin into Indonesia.

He is to be executed alongside nine other convicts from Australia, the Philippines, Brazil, France, Ghana and Indonesia

Their requests for presidential clemency were rejected.

The United Nations human rights office yesterday asked Indonesia to refrain from proceeding with the execution, saying that the death penalty won’t stop narcotics trafficking.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “There is no evidence that the death penalty deters drug crimes.”