Why Govs Don’t Want To Kill Condemned Prisoners — Daily Trust Investigation

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Despite rising judgments on capital punishment, governors are reluctant to sign warrants for condemned prisoners to be executed.

Nothing can be more traumatizing than waiting for the hangman. When in 2013, the then Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, signed the death warrants of some condemned prisoners, sources revealed that the condemned prisoners screamed and wailed on the way to the gallows.

Daily Trust report continues:

But just as executions get emotional, during the military era, it was a show as condemned prisoners were publicly shot, with crowds converged - on Bar Beach in Lagos for instance - to witness the spectacle. 

Edo State is in the lead of executions in Nigeria. In December 2016, the newly sworn in Governor Godwin Obaseki signed death warrants on three condemned prisoners. Human rights organization Amnesty International was unhappy, saying Nigeria disregarded a moratorium not to undertake executions for seven years.

However, former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 urged state governors to sign death warrants, even as his then Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke was against the death penalty.

Daily Trust gathered that when former President Jonathan made the remarks, 970 prisoners were on death row across various prisons in Nigeria. The number consisted of 951 males and 19 females. Rivers State had 157 of those number followed by Delta with 149. Ogun State has 132, Plateau State, 126; Lagos 83; Kaduna 79; Enugu 75; Kano 51; Katsina 43; Edo 35; Cross River 17; Jigawa 18 and Kebbi 13. Others are Kwara 12; Federal Capital Territory 10; Niger 10; Ondo seven; Benue six; Sokoto six; Osun five and Taraba four.

During the regime of General Muhammadu Buhari between December 31, 1983-August 27, 1985, the junta enacted Decree 20 which carried a death penalty of which 10 persons were executed by firing squad, all for drug-peddling. There was national and international outcry on the matter. Apart from this, the regime was also said to have executed convicts whose death warrants were not signed by the previous civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. It was gathered that Buhari handed over the death list to his deputy, Brigadier-General Tunde Idiagbon, who implementation it. 

During the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, armed robbers and their accomplices were executed. Notably was 27-year-old Lawrence Anini, a self-styled ‘Robin Hood’ armed robber and his second-in-command and other cohorts, executed on March 29, 1987. The gang terrorized the old Bendel State robbing banks, residents and motorists.  

However, the matter concerning signing death warrants resonated recently when the Chief Judge of Delta State, Marshal Umukoro, urged state governors to endorse the papers to reduce prison congestion and serve as deterrent to others. In a lecture titled “The Judiciary and Criminal Justice System: Odds and Ends,” at the 2017 Aquinas’ Day colloquium of Dominican Institute in Ibadan, he quoted data from the National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC), that Nigeria now has about 1,612 inmates on death row.

All death sentences must be endorsed by state governors where judgments are passed before they are implemented, but there are concerns that governors use their Prerogative of Mercy and other excuses to commute those sentences. There are other reasons why governors are not signing death warrants, including concern from international human rights watchdogs and other local pressure groups. 

For instance in November 1995, when playwright and environmental campaigner, Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogonis were executed by the regime of General Sani Abacha, it generated international condemnation and Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations for three years. 

At a recent parley with journalists in Abuja, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) said state governors are responsible for the high number of condemned inmates in prisons as they were unwilling to approve the executions. According to him, there are about 1,640 condemned persons in prison formations across the country and appealed to the state governors to do the needful by either signing the condemned persons’ death execution or commuting their death sentences to terms of imprisonment. 

“When someone is condemned to death and he has exhausted his appeal to the Supreme Court, the only opportunity escaping death is the Chief Executive commuting his death sentence to a term of imprisonment.”

Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, at a security meeting of northern governors in Kaduna, said he will sign the death warrant of anyone convicted of murder in the state. “I will not even blink, and I’ll sleep well,” he noted, apparently worried about series of crises in parts of northern Nigeria, including his state.

In Bauchi State, despite an executive bill approved by the state House of Assembly making kidnapping, cattle rustling and other similar crimes capital offences, the governor, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, has not assented to it. According to sources at the Assembly, the bill was received in the last quarter of 2016, treated and sent back to the governor but nothing was heard about it.

Findings by Daily Trust at the state command of the Nigerian Prisons Service reveals that five inmates convicted by Shari’a Courts in Bauchi State are on death row. According to the command’s spokesperson, Abubakar Jibrin Adam, apart from the five convicted by the Shari’a courts, other death row inmates were taken to Jos prison in neighbouring Plateau State, as Bauchi lacked facilities. He described as complicated carrying out death sentences by governors, especially in the North. He said that the governors are very cautious when it comes to acting on Shari’a Court rulings because they are based on the Qur’an and Sunnah and opposing such rulings cannot even be contemplated by any governor. 

Adam pointed out that even in cases involving High Courts where the federal and the state governments have concurrent jurisdiction with governors having the power to order for execution, they are careful of political considerations.

However, in Kogi State, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mohammed Ibrahim said the administration is new and still studying the situation before taking action on those on death row. He said that the governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, constituted a committee on Prerogative of Mercy to ascertain prisoners from the state that would deserve commutation of sentences and made appropriate recommendations.

Mohammed noted that the issue of signing of death warrants is the prerogative of the governor and usually done at his own discretion. 62 persons from Kogi State are currently on death row.

In Benue State, the number of people on death row waiting the hangman’s noose could not be ascertained but Governor Samuel Ortom on assumption of office has reinvigorated the State Prerogative of Mercy Committee. However, there are also no records that the governor has signed the death warrant of any of those on death row across the state.

In Kaduna, a source at the Nigerian Prisons Service state command told Daily Trust that there are about 102 condemned criminals sentenced from across the country in the facility. According to the source, some of them are within the purview of the state governors but have not exhausted their appeals.

Reports from Imo State, indicate that Governor Rochas Okorocha has not signed any death warrant for condemned prisoners, as their cases are already pending at the appeal court. The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Miletus Nlemadim told Daily Trust in Owerri that the decision for the governor to sign a death warrant can only be taken after the conclusion of confirmation by the Supreme Court.

In Akwa Ibom State, the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Uwemedimo Nwoko, explained that the federal government has said the state has 180 condemned prisoners with many of their cases on appeal. Asked if the state governor will sign the death warrants when they are eventually brought to him, Nwoko said:  “When we get to that bridge, we will cross it. Once we receive such a letter, we’ll look at merit, then decide what to do.”

In Ogun State, indications that the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, may be far from signing warrants of execution, emerged on Thursday, when two condemned inmates got amnesty. They were Nurudeen Suleiman and Isikilu Olamilekan, who were convicted for robbery at an Ogun State High Court, Ijebu-Ode in December 2006.

In a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary (Political Affairs and Administration), Mrs. Funmi Ajayi, on behalf of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Barrister Taiwo Adeoluwa, addressed to the state comptroller, hinted that the governor’s gesture was in line with the earlier promise made during his visit to the Ibara prisons on his birthday on January 25.

In Kano, the incumbent Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has never signed a death warrant since he assumed office on May 2015, the state Commissioner of Justice, Barrister Haruna N. Muhammad Falali has said. “Death is a very sensitive issue, therefore one has to be very careful in handling cases of execution. Governors are responsible for signing death warrants, but they have ceased to for quite a while now.”

The commissioner added that the governors have to be certain beyond reasonable doubt that the person to be executed deserves to be killed. “What we normally do here in Kano is converting the condemned prisoners to lifers, as the present governor has,” he said.

However, Director of Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Idayat Hassan, expressed delight that state governments are not signing death warrants. She said death penalty undermines human dignity and that it is not even deterring the perpetration of crime.

“If two-thirds of countries have abolished the death penalty why should Nigeria be applying it especially in a country where innocent people may be easily executed due to inherent challenges in the administration of criminal justice system,” she said.

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said the organization does not subscribe to frivolous killings because people have been innocently killed in the past. “Sentences handed out are sometimes politically motivated. If de-congestion is the reason then there are so many other ways it can be addressed,” he said.

Mr. Sylvester Uhaa of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Nigeria), said it was imperative for the country to do away with death penalty in line with global trend.

A human rights activist in Edo State, David Ugolor of African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), attributed the reluctance of the governors to sign death warrants to the global campaign against the death penalty. “I think the reason the governors refused  to sign is based on the fact that death penalty has not be the solution to committing crime in Nigeria as well as  their religion conviction,” he said.

According to a report from Amnesty International, globally, 2,466 death sentences were issued by governments in 2014 from 1,925 in 2013. But, it noted that despite the increase in sentencing, actual executions declined by 22 percent between 2013 and 2014. It said Nigeria led in issuing death sentences in 2014 with 659, Egypt came second with 509, Pakistan, 231, Bangladesh, 142, Tanzania, 91, Iran, 81, United States and Vietnam, 72 each, India, 64 and Sri Lanka, 61. Just over 19,000 people were on death row throughout the world in 2014.

But in 2015, at least 1,634 people were executed in 25 countries. This represented a 50 percent increase of 2014 with 1,061 executions in 22 countries. Amnesty noted that most executions took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA - in that order. However excluding China, almost 90 percent of all executions took place in just three countries - Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. 20,292 people were on death row at the end of 2015.

In 2015, 25 countries are known to have carried out executions - a rise from 22 in 2014. Nevertheless, the number decreased significantly from 39 countries that carried out executions in 1996. But, it is not all a bloody affair as in 2015, four countries - Fiji, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo and Suriname - abolished the death penalty for all crimes. In total, 102 countries have done so.

According to Amnesty, capital punishment does not work and there is a wealth of mounting evidence that proves it. It also noted that the death penalty, both in the United States and around the world, is discriminatory and used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. It also noted that since humans are fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.