Death-row inmate Celestine Egbunuche has been dubbed Nigeria’s “oldest prisoner” amid a campaign calling for his release.
He is 100 years old and has spent 18 years in jail after being found guilty of organising a murder.
Small and slightly hunched over, he looks wistfully into space as he sits on a tightly packed bench inside a stuffy prison visitor’s room.
Dressed in a white T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops, he lifts his head slowly – his way of acknowledging our presence.
But otherwise he remains quiet during our visit – in stark contrast to the rest of the room that is filled with loud chatter at Enugu Maximum Security Prison in south-east Nigeria.
His son Paul Egbunuche, 41, sits protectively close to him – and does the talking. He is in jail on the same murder charge.
They were both accused of hiring people to kidnap and kill a man over an alleged land dispute in Imo state.
Paul maintains their innocence. They were detained in June 2000 and eventually convicted and sentenced to death in 2014. Read more
