/ 6 February 2001

NIGERIAN HELD FOR YEARS AFTER TWO-MONTH TERM

A BANGLADESHI court has asked Dhaka prison officials to produce a Nigerian languishing in jail here since 1992 after being sentenced to a two-month term. A High Court ruled Goddyu Ochendo should be produced this week. Ochendo, 28, and his teenage American girl Elieda MacCord were arrested in Dhaka airport in March 1992 and charged with drug smuggling and other charges. Ochendo, who was then just 19, was sentenced to two months prison in July 1993 for using an invalid passport to enter Bangladesh. When his term expired he did not have the money to fly back to Nigeria, therefore he was not released from jail. – AFP