Memorial plaque of British-Nigerian man replaced after it was stolen
A memorial to a British-Nigerian man who drowned after he was chased by police has been replaced after the original one was stolen.
The blue plaque for David Oluwale disappeared just hours after it was officially unveiled on Leeds Bridge in the city in April.
Two days later a laminated copy of the memorial was put in the same place but that was vandalised later in the day.
Police at the time said they were treating both incidents as hate crimes.
Leeds Civic Trust tweeted that the memorial, which it described as the “people’s plaque”, had been reinstalled after “April’s shameful theft”.
Ahead of being replaced on the bridge, the plaque had been on show at The Tetley as part of an exhibition on Mr Oluwale and plans for a memorial sculpture.
Who was David Oluwale?
- David Oluwale migrated from Nigeria in August 1949, hiding on a cargo ship destined for Hull
- He spent his final two years homeless in Leeds city centre, routinely mentally and physically abused by two police officers
- In the early hours of 18 April 1969, he was chased on to a bridge over the River Aire, and his body was found in the water two weeks later
- Two officers were later jailed for a series of assaults, but justice and civil rights campaigners said their trial presented a deliberately negative portrait of Mr Oluwale as a “social nuisance”.
Source: Ghana News
