President Goodluck Jonathan recently called on the 36 state governors to sign death warrants to facilitate the immediate execution of the over 900 convicts who are awaiting the hangman’s noose in the country’s prisons.The President’s appeal, we understand, is aimed at solving the problem of prison congestion and also reducing the spiraling crime rate in the country. We share the President’s concern on both prison congestion and high crime rate in Nigeria. But we doubt whether a speedy execution of death row prisoners is the solution to both challenges.
State governors who the President wants to sign death warrants are severely handicapped. Unlike the military governors before them, who operated with the authority of Special Military Tribunals – whose rulings on capital punishment had no room for appeal – democratically elected governors are under oath to uphold the rule by law. Anyone sentenced to death today under today’s law is entitled to the constitutional right of appeal. For the state governors, it will be a crime to carry out the President’s directive in respect of most of the condemned prisoners whose appeals are pending in either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, the call made by the President does not take cognizance of the moratorium placed on the death penalty since 2006 by the United Nations. As a responsible member of the international community, Nigeria has so far honoured the terms of the moratorium. Indeed, it is on the basis of the moratorium and the recommendations of the prerogative of mercy committees of the states that a number of condemned prisoners have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment by some state governors.
Unfortunately, the governor of Edo state, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, in implementing the President’s ‘kill quick’ order, has kicked off a storm by ordering the execution of four men: ChimaEjiofor, Daniel Nsofor, OsarenmwindaAiguokhan and Richard Igagu. They were hanged at Benin City prison after a court had ordered their executions. Although an appeal court upheld the sentences shortly before the executions took place, human rights groups are saying that all appeals for the prisoners had not been exhausted – a violation of both Nigerian and international laws.
Additionally, we are informed that 80% of those in prison are awaiting trials. They are the ones responsible for prison congestion and not condemned men. Executing four men does not in any way decongest the prison in Benin. It is simply bizarre.Finally, crime cannot be controlled by executing convicts. There is need to radically transform the economy to provide jobs for our teeming youth, some of whom have taken to crime for want of anything legitimate to do.
