Below: Esther and Hall.
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Esther was sentenced to death in 1953 for reportedly killing her white boyfriend. She was later granted a pardon by Nnamdi Azikiwe and eventually married a Nigerian police officer.
Her real name was Ada Ocha Ntu, but she was popularly known as Esther Johnson.
In 1953, at the age of 22, she was said to have stabbed her boyfriend, Maurice Hall, a British railway locomotive engineer, with a pair of scissors. Hall did not survive the attack.
The incident, which occurred in Lagos, became one of the most talked-about cases of the time.
Esther reportedly received widespread sympathy across the country and beyond. According to reports, she had given Hall her savings of £400 to purchase a car for her before he travelled to England. However, when he returned, he allegedly told her that he had used the money to marry an English woman and buy the new bride a car instead.
She was arrested and charged to court. Through her lawyer, Esther based her defence on provocation, arguing that the killing occurred during a heated argument after Hall’s confession. Reports suggested she acted in self-defence during a physical altercation.
On June 18, 1953, she was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. She was subsequently taken to Broad Street Prison in Lagos.
Following widespread public sympathy and reactions, her death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. On October 1, 1961, during the first anniversary of Nigeria’s independence, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, then Governor-General, granted her a pardon.
After serving about 433 weeks in prison, she was released. She later married a police officer, Mr. Joshua Ayeni, on April 23, 1964.
The Esther Johnson case became a symbol of nationalist sentiment against colonial authorities. A bar named “Esther’s Revenge” was reportedly established at Broad Street (now Freedom Park area of Lagos) in remembrance of the case.
ℹ️ Ethnic African Stories
