Thankgod, Nigerian who dodged noose and bullet and is now out of jail

A man who escaped the hangman on the gallows has been freed after 19 years on death row in Nigeria, Amnesty International says.

Thankgod Ebhos, 54, was dragged to the gallows and watched four fellow death-row inmates being hanged in June 2013. He was saved because prison officials realised his sentence by a military tribunal called for him to be shot by a firing squad.

Human rights lawyers filed an appeal noting he had been convicted while the country was under a military dictatorship notorious for unfair trials and extracting confessions from prisoners under torture.

A court of the Economic Community of West African states in June ruled that Ebhos should be freed.

Amnesty International said that Ebhos was released from jail on Friday on orders of the governor of Kaduna state, where he was convicted of armed robbery.

Last year's hangings, which sparked an outcry, were the first in nearly eight years, breaking an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty. Nigeria had 1,039 people on death row last year.