Stakeholders in Nigeria’s criminal justice system have advised governors to be decisive in the execution of condemned prisoners rather than continue to torture them in prison.
In a survey on the failure to sign death warrants of condemned prisoners since the advent of civilian government in 1999, the stakeholders attributed the governors’ apathy in this regard to many factors, including maintaining political correctness in order not to jeopardise their chances for re-election.
Some of the respondents, in separate interviews in Ogun, Oyo, and Kwara, also identified the dearth of professional hangmen or executioners for the high number of condemned persons languishing in prisons.
Musibau Adetunbi, a senior lawyer, said that keeping convicted persons perpetually on death row was inhuman.
Mr Adetunbi said that being kept on death row was mental torture for such a convict, hence it was necessary for governors to either sign their death warrants or convert them to life imprisonment.
The lawyer said it would be improper to abolish the death sentence, considering the way and manner in which some people commit crimes in Nigeria. He, however, suggested that the National Assembly could amend the constitution to replace the death sentence with life imprisonment since the governors were unwilling to sign the death warrants.
Also, Mutalubi Adebayo Ojo, a former attorney general in Oyo, argued that it would not be in the best interest of Nigeria to abolish the death sentence cònsidering the various happenings in the society.
Mr Ojo said that the death sentence was no longer applicable in some parts of the world, and this may be why governors in Nigeria were not signing death warrants anymore.
“The only governor whom I can remember signed one in the current democratic dispensation was Adam Oshiomole, when he was the governor of Edo. That action sparked a huge criticism from Nigerians, who condemned the pronouncement.
“In deciding whether the death sentence should be abolished or not, there must be a stakeholders’ dialogue on weighing our options, that is, the advantages or disadvantages therein. On this issue, we don’t have to look at whether it is still fashionable on the world stage or not.
“Our decision on it must be based on what we face as a nation. For me, the death sentence should not be abolished based on our peculiar circumstance; there is crime everywhere, and it must be dealt with,” he said.
However, Oludayo Tade, the president of the Nigeria Society for Criminology, attributed some governors’ refusal to sign death warrants to their belief in the sanctity of life and contention that every individual should be allowed to live out their natural lifespan.
“Once a dangerous offender has been removed from society through incarceration, some governors feel it is unnecessary and even excessive to proceed with execution,” he said.
Mr Tade said that it was important to allow the legal process to be fully exhausted before any death warrant was signed.
“A death sentence may begin at the High Court, but could be overturned at the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, hence signing a death warrant prematurely, before all legal avenues have been exhausted, could amount to justice denied,” Mr Tade said.
On the deterrent effect of capital punishment, Tade recalled the military era when public executions were common.
“If we flash back to the military era, executions at places like Polo Ground or Bar Beach were openly displayed. Yet, in our democratic system, it has become more complex,” he said.
The criminologist further listed some factors that could act as constraints to a governor’s signing of death warrants, such as the calibre of the convict, their social connections, and the lack of trained executioners.
“Depending on the crime committed, there are those who believe anyone can show signs of positive change after going through the correctional process. Such individuals may even be granted pardon eventually,” he noted.
According to him, the issue is not the ineffectiveness of the law itself, but rather the lack of enforcement and human commitment to drive the process.
“The law will not enforce itself. If those responsible for its implementation are not committed, it becomes ineffective. The problem is not about reviewing or abolishing the law, but about understanding why we have capital punishment and on the offences to which it should be applied,” Mr Tade said.
He also drew attention to perceived injustices within the justice system, particularly in cases involving corruption.
“People have argued: why not introduce capital punishment for those who have corruptly enriched themselves with the collective wealth of the nation? For example, someone who embezzles pension funds and deprives thousands of retirees of their livelihood can cause as much harm as a violent criminal.
“Yet, such individuals often get away with paying a small percentage of what they stole through plea bargains and even receive pardons,” he noted.
Also, a former attorney general in Kwara, Salman Jawondo, attributed the high number of condemned prisoners on death row to the scarcity of hangmen. The former commissioner explained that nobody wants to be a hangman in Nigeria anymore.
Besides, Mr Jawondo said that the legal process has made provision that anybody who is condemned to death has an automatic right of appeal up to the apex court.
He cited the recent case of AbdulRahman Bello, who was found guilty of killing a final year student of the Kwara State College of Education, llorin, Hafsat, saying that the governor will not sign any death warrant while an appeal is pending.
He also cited the case of Bello vs Oyo government, where the condemned convict was executed, and the family sued the governor. According to him, Oyo was asked to pay restitution to the family of Mr Bello because it had irreversibly truncated his right of appeal.
“So no governor will sign a death warrant immediately after somebody is condemned because by the provision of the Constitution, a person condemned has a right to appeal within three months.
“The correctional system in Nigeria is not for vengeance. The target of the correctional provision is for reformation. It is not to take revenge, but to make people know that there are consequences for their actions,” he said.
Mr Jawondo explained further that the system allows for a condemned convict to remain in prison, subject to good behaviour.
“After some time, his sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment. It is considered that instead of wasting life, ‘blood upon blood’, it is better to reform the individual. So if you spend some years in the Correctional Service and you are recommended for good behaviour, the death sentence can be reduced to life imprisonment,” he said.
Similarly, Abideen Olaiya, a lecturer at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, said the majority of the governors in Nigeria fail to sign the death warrant because they were not fully prepared for governance.
Mr Olaiya said that one of the major duties of governors was justice and maintenance of law and order, noting that most governors only focused on resource distribution and revenue generation.
Mr Olaiya said that the only way to establish justice in any community was to completely remove from the society whoever commits a violent crime, as attested to by the Quran, Bible, and local beliefs.
“Whoever is involved in any violent crime to the extent of killing a human being without any just cause should be killed,” he said.
Mr Olaiya berated governors for not signing the death warrants on their desks and blamed this for the rise in violent crimes in Nigeria. He said that abolishing or repealing the law on the death sentence would encourage and worsen criminality in Nigeria.
“We must put pressure on the governors rather than looking at the direction of repealing the death sentence,” he said.
(NAN)
