By Obioma Ezenwobodo
The recent moves by the Ogun State Government to sign death warrants of condemned inamtes in the State due to rise in violent crimes is a cause for concern. This revelation was made by the the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Oluwasina Ogungbade, SAN, after inspecting inmates and facilities at the Correctional Centre, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State on the 17th January, 2025 and reported in some news media.
The intention of this joinder is to plead with Ogun State Government ably represented by the honourable Attorney General of the State to temper justice with mercy by reconsidering the move as doing so will be inhuman and degrading as the best contemporary practice is to commute death sentence to life imprisonment. This is with the hindsight that death sentence does not abate violent crimes as it is a mere violent retaliation to it. The late Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., whose husband and mother-in-law were both assassinate had this to say about death penalty despite being a victim of same:
“An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation, Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.”
Bryan Stevenson, a civil rights lawyer striving to reform the US criminal justice system remarked that the main argument on death penalty is not whether it is right or wrong but whether we deserve to retaliate by exercising the same killing which we condemn. The celebrated rights activists had this to say about death penalty:
“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, do we deserve to kill.”
Internationally, death penalty is deemed to be inhuman, degrading and violation of human dignity. More than 140 countries have abolished it or introduced moratorium on its use thereby indicating that it is not an effective deterrence to crimes but a merely ultimate denial of human dignity. This growing global trend led to various United Nations resolutions aimed at eliminating death penalty. Two notable resolutions of notes are resolution 62/149that called for a worldwide moratorium on executions of death row inmates and resolution A/RES/77/222 that noted that the death penalty is often applied disproportionately to poor people, foreign nationals, and people exercising their human rights.
In Africa, 26 out of the 55 countries have abolished the death penalty while 16 are observing a moratorium on executions. Only 14 countries still retain capital penalty. Chad, our immediate neighbour abolished the death penalty in April 2020 while Ghana just abolished death penalty in July 2023.
In Nigeria, though our legislations are replete with various provisions for death penalties, the court has been courageous enough to declare the method of execution of death row inmates in Nigeria unconstitutional. In the celebrated case of James Ajulu & Ors v. A.G. of Lagos State (Unreported) Suit No. ID/76M/2008, Hon. Justice Olokoba held thus:
“Death by hanging or by firing squad amounts to a violation of the condemned right to dignity of the human person and inhuman and degrading treatment. It is consequently unconstitutional being violation of section 34(1)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”
What is more? Death penalty forecloses investigation for justice as many death row inmates had been found to be innocent after being sentenced and this could have been brought about by poor investigation procedure, poor/inadequate legal representation or judicial error. Their fate would have been sealed if the worst had happened.
Ogun State, just like other States in the country, is faced with existential surge in violent crimes not purposely due to lack of execution of death penalty but mainly due biting economic meltdown in the country. This economic issue has pushed a great proportion of the citizens to extreme poverty level. Despite the woeful economic situation, the State still owes it to all citizens to protect lives and properties by not just enforcing laws but deploying high-tech security architecture to combat crimes and criminality. Central to all these is the onerous duty of the State to cater for and invest greatly on the welfare needs of the citizens as this will invariably reduce crimes and criminality in the society.
Based on the above assertions, a humble appeal is being made to Ogun State not to embark on the exercise of executing death row inmates but commute their sentence to life imprisonment as this accord with modern and more justified trend. This will protect their dignity and humanities which we all share.
Obioma Ezenwobodo LL.M
Managing Partner Resolution Attorneys &
Executive Director Policy and Legislative Advocacy Network.
