No fewer than 970 inmates on death row are
currently languishing in the nation’s prisons awaiting their execution.
They comprise 951 males and 19 females.
Findings revealed that the inmates had been on
death row for years, following the refusal of state governors to sign their
execution order.
As at July 2012 for instance, the prisons in
River State had 157 inmates consisting of 149 males and eight females on death
row. The figure from the state is the highest in the country.
The state is followed by Delta State, which has
149 convicted inmates, comprising 146 males and three females.
Ogun State has 132 condemned felons followed by
Plateau State, which has 125 males and one female awaiting Governor Jonah
Jang’s execution order.
Other states with high death row inmates are
Lagos 83; Kaduna 79; Enugu 75; Kano 51; Katsina 43; Edo 35; Cross River 17,
Jigawa 18, Kebbi 13; Kwara 12, Federal Capital Territory 10, Niger 10, Ondo
seven, Benue six, Sokoto six, Osun five and Taraba four.
Apart from felons, the prisons have 463 convicts
serving life sentence for various crimes. They comprise 455 males and eight
females.
Of the 51,004 prison inmates nationwide, 33,731 –
comprising 32,997 males and 734 females – are awaiting trial inmates.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the
Nigeria Prisons Service, Kayode Odeyemi, has absolved the NPS of blame for the
delay in the execution of inmates on death row.
According to him, the service cannot carry out
executions without orders from the governors.
He said, “How can we carry out executions without
executive orders from the governors? We don’t have the power to do that and
since the governors are reluctant to sign the death warrants, we have to keep
the condemned inmates on death row indefinitely.”
Apart from the governors’ reluctance to sign
death warrants, the civil society groups have also resisted moves to execute
convicts.
For example, a move by Governor Adams Oshiomhole
of Edo State to implement a Supreme Court judgment that condemned Osaremwinda
Aiguohian and Daniel Nsofor, to death by hanging has attracted criticism from
civil society groups, Amnesty International and the National Human Rights
Commission.
Following petitions, the governor reviewed the
death sentences on four convicts, and commuted two other persons to life
imprisonment, while another two were set free.
He, however, confirmed the execution of Aiguohian
and Nsofor, who were said to have strangled a woman to death after forcibly
dispossessing her of money and other personal effects.
No date has been fixed for the execution of the
two convicts.
Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment