Aregbesola Asks Governors To Sign Death Warrants Of Condemned Inmates To Decongest Correctional Centres

Rauf Aregbesola, Nigeria's Minister of Interior

Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola yesterday requested governors to sign the death warrants of convicts on death row who have exhausted all avenues of appeal to free up space in the nation’s correctional facilities, ThisDay reports.

The minister who made the plea while speaking in Osogbo, Osun state, when inaugurating the newly constructed headquarters of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Daily Trust reported, said the nation’s correctional facilities are being stretched by “an overpopulation capacity of 18 percent” — with facilities built to serve 57,278 inmates currently holding 68,747 inmates, urging that to remedy the decongestion, convicts on death row who have used up all means of appeal must be hastened to the gallow.

According to Aregbesola, while the governors could free some condemned convicts on compassionate grounds due to old age or illness other inmates that have demonstrated exceptionally good behaviour could also be released or have their sentences commuted to life or specific terms in jail.

The minister disclosed that out of the 3,008 condemned criminals awaiting executions in Nigerian prisons, 2,952 were males and 56 females, adding that 68,747 inmates, comprising of 67,422 males and 1,325 females, are now been detained in facilities meant for 57,278 detainees.

He also noted that 50,992 inmates, representing 74 % of the total population of inmates in the nation’s custodial centres were awaiting trial inmates while only 17,755 inmates which is a mere 26 % were the actual convicts, Legit reports.

However, the minister submitted that the federal government would build more correctional facilities to cover the six geo-political zones of the country, in addition to the 3,000 high-capacity custodial centre it is building in Kano and Rivers states, as well as Abuja. This new additions, according to him would decongest the overpopulated correctional centres to enable them play their reformative roles.

Recall in 2016, 2017 and 2018 the media published related stories about State Governors in Nigeria allegedly refusing to sign death warrants of condemned inmates in the countries correctional centres which has been adjudged by many as a clear alternative to decongest Nigeria’s correctional facilities.

·         The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said the number of death row inmates in prisons nationwide has reached 1,832, contributing to the congestion in the detention facilities, The PUNCH reports in 2018. According to the story, Malami, who disclosed this in his report of the activities of the Federal Ministry of Justice for the three years under his watch, said death row inmates who had exhausted their rights of appeal continued to contribute to the overcrowding of the prisons due to governors’ reluctance to sign their death warrants. He said in the report which he signed in April this year and a copy of which this newspaper holds, that his ministry was preparing a memorandum to be sent to the National Economic Council to seek its intervention. He stated, “A major challenge presently being faced in efforts to decongest the prisons is the reluctance of state governors to sign death warrants of condemned inmates who have exhausted their appeals, thereby contributing to overcrowding.

·       Nothing can be more traumatizing than waiting for the hangman, Daily Trust reported in 2017 with the headline ‘Why Govs Don’t Want To Kill Condemned Prisoners’. According to the report, 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. 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.

 

·         According to a story by The Nation 2016 captioned ‘Death penalty: Who’ll sign the warrants?’, an estimated 1,400 people are on death row in Nigeria. In several instances, governors are unwilling to sign the death warrants. THE prisons are filled with condemned criminals. They die many times before their death because they are uncertain of the time the hangman would come for them. But, in a country where torture is still used to extract confessions, and where the process of investigation is flawed, many on the death row may be innocent, leading to calls for abolition of the death penalty. Perhaps, the uncertainties in the processes that lead to convictions explain why some governors are unwilling to sign death warrants. No fewer than 1,400 people are on death row, with many of them waiting for the hangman for years. The only exception is the reported execution of three death row inmates at Oko Prisons in Benin City. Ogbomoro Omoregie, Apostle Igene and Mark Omosowhota, were said to have been executed on December 23 at about 6am. They had been sentenced to death by military tribunals under the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Decree 1971 as amended, in which there is no right of appeal.

 

• In October 2018 The Punch carried a story stating that ‘An advocacy group, Human Rights Law Service, has said there is no longer any justification for Nigerian judges to continue to pass death sentence on convicts in the country. This, according to HURILAWS, which is being spearheaded by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), is because state governors, who have the power to sign the death warrants for death row inmates, are shying away from such responsibility. The group, quoting Amnesty International, said there were no fewer than 2,285 death row inmates languishing in different prisons across the country, noting that in 2017 alone, a total of 621 persons were sentenced to death by the courts with no governor willing to sign their death warrants. The group said, “In practice, since May 29, 1999, most state governors have failed, refused or neglected to sign warrant of execution. The result is that death sentences are handed down by the courts and are not carried out.’