Mr Angel, who was the President and founder of Life Wire International Foundation, SaharaReporters reported on Tuesday, was assassinated in his country home, Ugboha, Esan South East, Edo state.
The Nigeria Police Force, Edo State Command has confirmed the murder of a Nigerian human rights defender and anti-death penalty advocate, Arthur Judah Angel in the state.
Mr Angel, who was the President and founder of Life Wire International Foundation, SaharaReporters reported on Tuesday, was assassinated in his country home, Ugboha, Esan South East, Edo state.
Confirming the incident in a telephone call on Wednesday morning, the Spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said the incident happened on July 15, 2024.
Nwabuzor disclosed that one suspect, who incidentally was the complainant and son of the deceased victim had been arrested in connection with the murder.
He said: "On the 15th of July 2024 at about 0900hrs a Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Ugboha Division, Edo state, received a complaint from one Arthur Angel Jr, 17-years old that he discovered behind their backyard a shallow grave. Immediately the Divisional Police Officer and his men mobilised to the scene where they saw the shallow grave and decided to exhume the body therein."
He said that when the body was exhumed, it was discovered that it was the lifeless body of one Arthur Angel, aged 70 years old.
"Immediately, the body was taking to Uromi Hospital Mortuary, while the complainant this time was arrested - Arthur Angel Jr. was arrested to the station for further questioning."
The PPRO disclosed that upon preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the deceased's son was responsible for the killing over money expected from the Amnesty International (AI) that never came.
"During the preliminary investigation carried out by the Divisional Police Officer Ughoha and his men, it was revealed that the same Arthur Angle Jr 17-years had threatened to kill his father severally, on the grounds that the father was expecting money from the Amnesty International and the money never came.
"While the deceased now was sleeping, the suspect Arthur Angle Jr. use a sledgehammer to hit his father behind his head and the other parts of the body, and that actually caused his death. As we speak, the Divisional Police Officer Ughoha has transferred the case to homicide section of the Command's Criminal Investigation Department, State CID Benin for further investigation. Investigation is ongoing," the PPRO explained.
Asked about the burning of the deceased house, the PPRO said: "the same son of the late victim set that house, part of it ablaze in order to make a case."
SaharaReporters had reported that Mr. Angel, spent nine years of his life on death row after being sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit in 1986. He wrote: "I refused to die, a true life story of Divine Intervention on death row".
After he was granted a pardon and released from prison, Angel dedicated his life to fighting against the use of the death penalty in Nigeria.
He travelled to over 15 countries to speak out against death penalty through his art exhibitions and drawings.
A review of his autobiography on Amazon described 'I Refused to Die' as a personal and harrowing account of one man's time on death row in Nigeria.
It described Arthur Angel as lucky enough to escape death row alive and brave enough to tell his story to the world in order to highlight the flawed and corrupt criminal justice and penal systems in Nigeria.
"Through his drawings and his book, he is courageously championing a cause.
"It may be difficult to assimilate this story. You heard or read about this but still wonder if it is true; anyhow, the story is real. It may sound like something out of a vicareque book, but this one is no fiction. It happened to Arthur Judah Angel.
"Punishment is synonymous with crime, but when a man is innocent yet faces death sentence, it could be regarded as absurd. For Arthur Judah Angel, a victim of circumstances, he had felt it, heard it, experienced and seen it all, yet he conquered all odds.
"It is all here, as expressed by the irrepressible Arthur Judah Angel. If 16 years of unreasoned goal failed to subdue and dehumanize him, I just wonder what could. Here’s an angel in the gallows... an endless memoir," the review added.