Furore over a Killing Order

 

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) with Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole

A directive by President Goodluck Jonathan that governors should sign death warrants of condemned convicts, is now generating widespread condemnation following the killing in Edo State last week of four persons condemned to death, write Shola Oyeyipo and Nkiruka Okoh

The presidency has come under fire following the statement by President Goodluck Jonathan during the activities marking the 2013 Fathers' Day celebration at the Aso Villa, Abuja on June 16 that it was the constitutional responsibility of governors to approve the death sentences passed on convicted criminals.

When giving his message at the Villa Chapel to commemorate the Fathers’ Day celebration, the president said the negative impacts of modernisation were eroding discipline, which he said used to be the hallmark of the family.
He said: “These days, because of modern life, discipline is almost gone. Discipline can be in various forms. In the states, it could be admonition. Magistrate can just admonish and allow him to go. From admonition to various forms of punishments, it could be imprisonment. The extreme is capital punishment.

“In the case of capital punishment, the state governors will sign the death sentence. Even governors sometimes find it difficult to sign. I have been telling the governors that they must sign because that is the law. The work we are doing has a very sweet part and a very ugly part and we must perform both. No matter how painful it is, it is part of their responsibilities.”

But hardly had the president finished talking about the issue than he started receiving knocks from Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), lawyers and international organisations, which warned that the directive must be reversed or ignored for various reasons.
Constitution lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), was one of those who came out early to condemn the statement credited to the president.

Though he acknowledged that the execution of the 912 convicts who are awaiting the hangman's noose in prisons could be part of a bid to tackle the problem of prison congestion, he warned that if the directive was carried out without allowing the conclusion of the legal procedures that the convicts have rights to, the president or any state governor who carries out such a directive might have issues to answer at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I would like to call on President Jonathan to withdraw the directive for the immediate execution of condemned prisoners. However, if the directive is carried out in utter violation of the constitutional right of appeal of the convicts and they are killed before the determination of their appeals, it will be tantamount to crime against humanity for which the president may be charged and tried before the International Criminal Court. State governors are particularly cautioned to refrain from implementing the president's directive to avoid being dragged with him before the International Criminal Court," he said.

The European Union (EU) was also agitated by the issue. On June 18, the body publicly urged state governors not to sign execution warrants of death row inmates in compliance with the directive by the president. Instead, the EU urged for joint efforts to uphold the strong abolitionist trend which prevails on the African continent and as a first step towards that, the union advised Nigeria to amend its legislation in order to end the use of the death penalty as a punishment.

Similarly, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) waded into the matter and asked the Commissioner, Zainabo Sylvie Kayitesi, and Chairperson of the Working Group on Death Penalty to “order the Nigerian government to withdraw the directive to the states governors which implies that they should swiftly execute prisoners on death row across the country.
In a request for provisional measures dated June 25, and signed by solicitor to SERAP, Falana, the organisation said: “Unless the African Commission urgently intervenes in this case, there is a risk of irreversible denial of several death row prisoners in Nigeria, which in turn will render nugatory the resolutions on moratorium on executions by the African Commission and the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly.”

The African Commission was also to request of Nigeria to “give assurances that the directive by President Jonathan will not be implemented by any of the 36 states of the federation of Nigeria and that the Nigerian government should also give assurances that they will fully implement the resolutions on moratorium on executions by the African Commission and the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly.
A pan-Yoruba group, the Yoruba Youth Assembly (YYA), in its reaction contained in a press statement signed by its National President, Olarinde Thomas and the General-Secretary, Adegboyega Rasaq, also took a swipe at the presidency over the directive.
"Rather than acting swiftly at implementing punitive measures against youths, government must be seen as responsive to the plight of hapless Nigerian youths by addressing the problem of mass unemployment ravaging the country and which is the harbinger of criminal acts," Olarinde stated.

Interestingly, despite the heated argument and opposition that followed the president's directive, four condemned prisoners were killed last week by the Edo State Government. The action was trailed by widespread condemnation.
Edo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Henry Idahagbon, while defending the state government, identified those executed as Chima Ejiofor, Daniel Nsofor, Osarenmwinda Aiguokhan and Richard Igagu, adding that one of the condemned convicts, ThankGod Ebohs, was yet to be executed because he was sentenced to death by firing squad whereas, the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) had only one hangman's noose for executing condemned persons.

Justifying the execution, he narrated the crimes committed by each of the condemned. According to him, Ebohs was convicted in Kaduna, by a Robbery and Firearm Tribunal for robbing a family, raping the wife of the family and forcing a bottle into the private part of the woman, an action that led to her death. The judgment stipulated the method of execution.
Ejiofor, a spare parts dealer in Benin City, killed a child delivered to him out of wedlock. Like, Ejiofor, Chima who had a child by an Edo woman remarried an Igbo woman, but during a Christmas celebration, he invited the child to spend the holiday with him. When the child came, he killed him, saying he does not want to have a child outside wedlock.

Aiguokhan, on his own part, killed his victim and buried the dismembered body in different places. Idahagbon, therefore, advised those against death penalty to direct their appeal to the National Assembly for an amendment to the law on murder and armed robbery.
“These are gory murders done by hardened criminals. If a person is convicted for armed robbery, the only thing the judge can give is the death penalty,” he added.

The explanation did not however go down well with a lot of people as condemnations trailed the execution of the four who were hanged in Benin City last Monday after their death warrants were signed by the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole.
Immediately, the United Kingdom Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, condemned the execution and urged authorities to halt further execution. He expressed regrets that the execution came only a few months before the Universal Periodic Review of Nigeria by the UN Human Rights Council.

The EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, also expressed deep regrets over the execution of the four prisoners, stating that the act represented a break of a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty and most regrettably, constituted a setback to Nigeria’s human rights record.
The body stated that the action of the Edo State Government went against the commitment repeatedly made by the Nigerian authorities most recently at the EU-Nigeria human rights dialogue held in Abuja in March and at the annual ministerial meeting in Brussels in May 2013, to maintain the de facto moratorium on executions.

“The executions can never be justified. I reiterate the longstanding opposition of the European Union to the use of the death penalty and recall the importance of UN resolutions calling for the establishment of a moratorium as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty. I urge the Nigerian authorities to refrain from further executions and urge state governors not to sign execution warrants," Ashton said.

SERAP, on its part, has asked that adequate compensation be paid to the families of the four prisoners already executed in Benin prison.
Issues pertaining to death penalty have remained controversial over the years, not just in Nigeria but worldwide. Many have called for its abolition or at least, moratorium. Some have suggested that death sentences be converted to life sentence (an option available to only pregnant women under S.271 (3) of the CPC and S.368 (2) of the CPA).
Others classify the law as outdated and proffered that it be expunged from the statutes and the constitution of the country.

About 98 countries in the world have abolished the death penalty from their statutes, while 57 nations, including Nigeria, still retain the law. Though the provision of the constitution of Nigeria is clear on death penalty or capital punishment, since the commencement of the democratic dispensation in 1999, there has been reluctance on the part of governors to sign the death warrant