‘Death penalty used disproportionately against the poor’

The president’s call is a contravention of Nigeria’s commitment to human rights, especially on the international scene. The position of the Nigerian government is quiet clear on the issue of death penalty. Nigeria has a self-imposed moratorium on executions and it has been in place since 2006. So for the president to urge the governors to go ahead and sign death warrants contravenes the moratorium which was put in place by the government itself.

There was a UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) held in 2009 where the issue of execution was discussed. Nigeria’s then foreign minister stated the position of the government, that Nigeria has a self-imposed moratorium on execution. So it is not right for the president to disregard the position of the government and urge the governors to sign. If that position has changed then the international community needs to know. We as an NGO are urging the federal government to formalise this moratorium.

The governors are supposed to know their constitutional responsibility and it is not for the federal government to remind them, even though it is a federal government. Beyond that, there are several issues to consider. There are several cases in court with regards to this issue that has been instituted by several non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The president cannot urge the governors to sign the death warrants when these cases are still pending in court, it would be unconstitutional for them to sign.

Currently we have over 15 of such cases nationwide and we are representing some inmates on death row.  Most of the cases we have are on appeal against the death sentence. So for those ones, it will still be unconstitutional for the governors to sign the death warrant while they have pending appeals. Even the Supreme Court has held that as soon as there is an appeal on any of these issues, it automatically acts as a stay.

There are several issues in the criminal justice system. The system we have is completely flawed and from the point of arrest to investigation, you will find loopholes. A system that cannot guarantee fairness should not result into the death penalty which is too absolute. So we want the federal government to exercise due caution. Let due process be adhered to. As long as convictions are based on confessions which are denied; trials going on for five years or more, where witnesses would have forgotten facts in the case; sometimes we have missing case files; we cannot claim that we have had a fair judgment and a perfect system and life is sacred while death penalty is too absolute. We look at issues like the irrevocability of execution, once a death warrant has been executed, and then we have fresh evidence to show that the prisoner was actually innocent, there is no amount of compensation that would ever be sufficient. These are the issues we want the president to avert his mind to.

Yes, sometimes they argue that they have gone through the trial process, but we can never erase the possibility of human error, it is always there even in advanced countries. There was a case in Colorado in the USA where a man was found to be innocent 72 years after his execution.

When it comes to issue of death penalty, there are a lot of sentiments attached to it in Nigeria. ASF France does not condone crimes or criminality but we want Nigerian citizens to look at the issues involved. As a first step, death penalty can be restricted to most serious crimes, but we do not even accept death penalty. Armed robbery does not fall under the most serious crime going by the definition of ‘armed robbery’ in Nigeria. What constitutes the definition of arm, a stick or cudgel could be an arm and that is why we should consider the proportionality of the crime against the penalty.

What we have in Nigeria which is also very problematic is the mandatory death penalty. It means that it erodes the judges of their discretion. So if you are a judge and you bring a suspect before me charged with armed robbery, if even it was a stick that he robbed with, I am obliged as a judge to hand down the death sentence. The judges cannot exercise their discretion; even if he had a small knife, first offender and no life was lost. The law says you must sentence him to death, so the hands of the judges are tied. When we meet the judges as part of our advocacy, they tell us “our hands are tied”. So they cannot exercise their discretion, because in law you have areas where a judge can exercise discretion. However, the issue of mandatory death sentence has been successfully challenged in some countries.

In the last few months Nigeria has been increasing the scope of death penalty, in terms of the number of offences that are punishable by death. The last incident was in Bayelsa State, where kidnapping is now punishable by death. Kidnapping cannot be one of the most serious crimes.

A lot of people are there in prison because they cannot afford the services of a lawyer. Please show me 10 rich Nigerians that are on death row. You can’t find them or does it mean that rich people don’t commit these offences, may be armed robbery. But looking at politics in Nigeria, we have many unsolved murder cases. Why are these people not on death row. So the death penalty is also used disproportionately against the poor. This I know, having worked closely with the prisons.