Respected human rights Lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has said that since the return of democratic government in 1999, only two Governors have signed death warrants of the execution of death row inmates in the country. It would be recalled that the former governor Kano State and presidential candidate in the 2011 general election, Ibrahim Shekarau was the first to have signed in 2006, while the second was by Governor Adams Oshiomhole in October 2012.
The former Kano state Governor reportedly endorsed the execution of seven inmates on a death row, who were all sentenced to death in the state, while Oshiomhole recently ratified the execution of two persons in Edo State.
According to Falana, legal and sociological implications of the action make it hard for civilian Governors to authorize the execution of a death sentence.
He said: “There is a sociological angle to the issue of executing death row inmates. Most prisons find it difficult to find hangmen. It is difficult to find a Nigerian, who would be proud of an occupation of killing people. And more importantly, it is difficult for civilian governors to ratify the killing of other citizens, even though they have been convicted.
“Since 1999, there have been only two ratifications for the execution of death row inmates in the country. The first one was by one of the governors of Kano State and recently, by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State. It is not easy for the governors because it is official murder. The reason for penalties in law is for correction, not execution. It is a fact that the death penalty has not served as a deterrent anywhere in the world.” The Lagos-based lawyer added that the sentence of the death row inmates would eventually be turned into life sentence due to the pressure at the prisons and global campaign against death penalty, stressing that Oshiomhole also turned the sentences of two other death row inmates to life imprisonment. Reacting, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Kayode Odeyemi: “The delay in their execution is beyond our scope. Our job is to keep them safe. It is the governors that would sign their execution order.”
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