Today in History: The Painful Story of Three Young Men Executed in 1985

Today in History: The Painful Story of Three Young Men Executed in 1985

On April 10, 1985, three young Nigerians Bartholomew Owoh (26), Bernard Ogedengbe (29), and Lawal Ojuolape (30) faced the firing squad at Kirikiri Shooting Range, Lagos.

Their crime?
Possession of hard drugs.

But what made their story tragic was not just the crime it was the law that killed them.

When they were arrested between April and May 1984, drug offences in Nigeria were bailable, not punishable by death.
However, after General Muhammadu Buhari took power through a military coup, he promulgated a new decree prescribing death by firing squad for anyone caught with drugs and made it retroactive.

That meant the law was applied backwards to people who had committed the offence before the law even existed.

In a chilling move that shook the nation, Buhari’s military government insisted the three men be executed.

Among them was Barth Owoh, the brother of popular Nollywood actor Nkem Owoh (Osuofia).
In a later interview, Nkem Owoh revealed that the family begged for clemency, but all pleas were ignored.
He recalled the pain of watching his brother executed for an offence that, by law, did not carry the death penalty at the time it was committed.

Reports later alleged that the drugs they were caught with actually belonged to powerful figures in the system.
But justice, in those dark military days, had no voice for the powerless.

Barth Owoh’s final words before facing death were heartbreaking:

“This is my first time, and I was led into it by my friend.”

They were executed still wearing the same clothes they had on when they were arrested.

A nation watched.
A generation wept.

And decades later, the memory of April 10, 1985, still stands as a haunting reminder of how power, fear, and injustice can take innocent lives in the name of order.

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