The United Kingdom, UK, yesterday, appealed to the federal government to end death penalty in the country. A statement by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, on the 2016 World Day against Death Penalty, said the British government believed death penalty had no place in the modern world and that its use undermined human dignity.
Arkwright, who said there was no conclusive evidence of its deterrent value, added that any miscarriage of justice leading to its imposition was irreversible and irreparable. He explained that the past two decades had seen a significant rise in the number of countries that had abolished capital punishment, noting, “I am concerned, therefore, that Nigeria, a model for democracy in Africa, still retains the death penalty in its laws. In 2013 Nigeria carried out four executions, the first since 2006.
At the time of the execution, all four individuals still had appeals to halt their executions, a violation of international law and I believe Nigerian law too.” He said while no death sentence had been implemented since 2013, Nigeria had more than 1,000 prisoners on death row, the highest number of death sentences in Africa. “In 2015, Nigeria recorded 171 death sentences. This year too, there have been death sentences handed down by Nigerian courts,” he said.
The high commissioner pointed out that capital punishment fuelled hatred, extremism and terrorism, stressing. “With the security challenges Nigeria faces today, some argue that retaining the death penalty is a just response to terrorism. My response to this view is that there is evidence that shows that judicial killing fuels hatred, extremism and terrorism. The real risk is that executing terrorists can generate many more to take their place,”he said.
On its part, Avocats Sans Frontières France/Lawyers Without Borders France, has renewed its call to the government to put in place an official moratorium on the death penalty.
Angela Uwandu, Head of Office, Avocats Sans Frontières France in a statement, yesterday, said: “Unfortunately, Nigeria is one of the countries that have introduced the death penalty as one of its measures for fighting terrorism within its territories. As the Nigerian government continues its brave fight against the Boko Haram group, the point, however, must be made that the death penalty has never been a solution for addressing terrorism in any country.”
Also, Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP, called on the government to take urgent steps to protect its citizens facing the death penalty in foreign countries especially in South East Asia. National coordinator LEDAP, Mr Chino Obiagwu, in a statement, yesterday, said: “We are concerned that the arrests, interrogations and trials of these Nigerians usually violated basic norms of fair hearing. Most of them had no interpreters during questioning upon arrest and even during trials.
“We call on Nigeria to enter into diplomatic negotiations with countries of the South East Asia and Saudi Arabia to secure prison transfers of all Nigerians currently convicted and sentenced to death in those countries, and to ensure that consulate services are provided in future to any Nigerian arrested and charged in any foreign country. We also urge the Nigerian National Assembly to adopt laws to abolish the use of death sentence as punishment for any crime.”
Human Rights Law Service, HURILAWS, also expressed concern that despite the progressive abolition of the death penalty globally, Nigeria had opted to expand the scope of the death penalty by including acts of terrorism among the offences punishable by death. It said that often, these offences, which did’nt necessarily result in lethal consequences, were drafted in very broad and undefined language, meaning they could be applied to a wide variety of activities.
