The Amnesty International (Al), yesterday, disclosed
that Nigeria is the second country that recorded the highest death sentence in
2016.
According to Al, the annual death sentences and executions
report by Amnesty International, in the years 2016, showed that the recorded
number of deaths by Nigeria rose to 527 out of the record of 1,086 in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Al explained that death sentence rose in Nigeria
from 171 in 2015 to 527 in 2016. Al said
that Lagos State imposed the highest number of death sentences in 2016 with 68
people, followed by Rivers State, which sentenced 61 people.
The report showed that there were three executions,
but 527 people were actually killed by sentence. The report also showed that as
at the end of 2016, 1,979 people were under sentence of death in Nigeria.
Though the number of executions was fewer, the number of death sentences
recorded rose by 145% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Al said that Nigeria handed down the second highest
death sentences in the world, only second to China.
The report states: “By handing down more death
sentences last year, than any other country except China, Nigeria has tripled
its use of this cruel and inhuman punishment and skyrocketed up the shameful
league table of the world’s death penalty offenders.”
China was noted to be one of the countries that
concealed their death penalty proceedings and shrouded their death sentences in
secrecy.
“China’s
horrifying use of the death penalty remains one of the country’s deadly
secrets, as the authorities continue to execute thousands of people each year,”
said the report.
While highlighting the disadvantages of executing
people, Al said: “The danger of people being executed for crimes they may not
have committed remains ever-present. Investigations showed that many death row
inmates live in constant fear of execution in some Nigerian prisons.”
An instance was also made about an execution of a
person, who was sentenced to death without an appeal. “On December 23, 2016,
three death row prisoners were put to death in Benin Prison, Edo State. Their
executions were carried out despite the fact that one of them, Apostle Igene,
was sentenced to death in 1997 by a military tribunal and never had an appeal.’
Mr. Colins Okeke, who represented the Nigerian
Anti-Death Penalty coalition, said that the faulty criminal system of the
country should not allow such irrevocable verdicts.
He said: “We have a police force that is
ill-equipped; that basically lacks the capacity to apprehend criminals, conduct
investigations. We have a court system that is clogged with cases and judges
that are overworked. So, even if you apprehend criminals, the system still has
difficulties processing these criminals. A government whose criminal system is
faulty has no moral right to kill.”
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