Residents of Imo and Abia have canvassed divergent views regarding the propriety of retaining the death penalty or abolishing it from the country’s Constitution, given the governors’ lack of commitment to the provision.
The people bared their minds in separate interviews on a survey by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Owerri, Umuahia and other cities in the two South-East states.
While some said that the consistent failure by the governors to append their signatures to Court judgments on capital punishment made the provision irrelevant and of no consequence, others insisted on its being part of the country’s statute book.
In Imo, some respondents called for an amendment to the law, saying that the National Assembly should alternate the death penalty with life imprisonment or a specific number of years at the court’s discretion.
The Chief Press Secretary to the state Governor, Mr Oguwike Nwachukwu, said that the 1999 Constitution (as Amended), especially Section 212, gives governors power of prerogative of mercy over convicts.
“This section empowers the governor of a state to grant pardon, reprieve, or commute sentences for offences created by the state’s laws.
“This means that they can approve for a convict to be executed, if all the processes leading to the conviction were taken into consideration,” he said.
However, Nwachukwu said that beyond the provisions of the Constitution empowering the governors, their rights are not absolute.
According to him, there are certain ecumbrances that could prevent the governor from commuting death sentence.
“There are situations in some states where the governor has an advisory body that advises him on whether to sanction the sentences or not.
“If you remember, the three agencies of the criminal system – Police, Judiciary and Prison, are also involved.
“The death penalty law is not just something you exercise without considering other provisions of the law,” he said.
He expressed doubt over the possibility of any convicts in the state serving death sentence, requiring the attention of the governor.
“I am confident that as a law abiding leader, the governor would have acted on it, if there was any,” he said.
He also said that reviewing the law or abolishing it should be a decision to be made by citizens through their lawmakers, hence the need for public hearing on the matter.
Also, the Orlu Branch Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, Mr Benneth Amukamara, said the death penalty law “had outlived its existence”.
Amukamara said: “In Nigeria and Imo, there are three offences that carry death penalty, namely armed robbery, murder and kidnapping.
“The usual practice is that when anyone is convicted of any of the three offences at the High Court, the governor cannot sign the execution or death warrant to enable the convict appeal the decision of the high court.
“And when he fails at the court of appeal, the law allows him to go to the Supreme Court.
“You will agree with me that it might take more than 15 years from the lower court to court of appeal and Supreme Court.
“Again, not all the governors will have the courage to sign the death penalty.”
The lawyer said that a majority of civilised countries do not have offences that carry death penalty, rather, the convicted is commuted to life sentence or a particular number of years.
He expressed belief that someone, who had served between 25 years to 30 years in prison, would come out a new person.
He said: “From my experience, the best thing to do is to abolish death penalty.
“That law is outdated because the majority of the convicted are still in the prison custody.
“So, what is the essence of the death penalty law?”
Another lawyer, Mr Dennis Orisakwe, however, differed, saying that the death penalty still “serve as a critical deterrent against heinous crimes”.
Orisakwe charged Governors and Presidents not to hesitate to sign the sentence once ordered by a Court of competent jurisdiction.
Orisakwe argued that the threat of the “ultimate punishment” discourages potential offenders from committing capital crimes, thereby protecting society at large.
He suggested that even if statistical evidence about deterrence is inconclusive, common sense and human psychology indicate that the fear of death is a powerful motivator to obey the law.
“The death penalty is instrumental to maintaining public safety and preventing crime,” he said.
Also, Mrs Chibuzor Henry, another legal practitioner, said that the death penalty supports the principle of retributive justice.
Henry said that justice demands that punishment should be commensurate with the severity of a crime – “a life for a life”.
“In cases where individuals commit particularly gruesome or premeditated murders, the death penalty is seen as the only appropriate response that acknowledges and repays the harm done to victims and their families.
“Abolishing the death penalty can lead to a perceived imbalance in justice, where criminals can be seen to ‘escape’ the full consequences of their actions, undermining public trust in the legal system and the seriousness with which society treats the worst offences,“ Henry said.
She further said that abolishing the death sentence could inadvertently endanger more lives.
According to him, with life sentences, sometimes being commuted or prisoners escaping, “the risk of recidivism among the most dangerous criminals is not negligible”.
A social commentator, Chief Friday Ugoh, also argued that maintaining the death penalty would demonstrate a firm societal stance against the most repugnant acts, and reinforces the moral boundaries of civilisation.
Ugoh expressed the belief that the ultimate punishment acts as a powerful symbol of society’s commitment to justice and order, creating a psychological and moral deterrent beyond practical crime prevention alone.
In Umuahia, the Abia Coordinator, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Mr Obinna Odenigbo, said that former Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo remained the only governor “known to have signed a death warrant since 1999”.
Odenigbo said: “Since I became a lawyer in 2009, I have only heard of one governor, that is former Governor of Edo, Adams Oshiomhole, who had the courage to sign a death warrant.”
According to him, most state governors avoid endorsing death sentences, despite hundreds of condemned prisoners awaiting execution across Nigerian prisons.
“Governors just don’t want to sign, so these inmates remain on death row indefinitely, wasting away and unproductive to society or even to themselves,” he said.
Odenigbo described the refusal to act as a failure of justice, saying that such convicts were neither punished nor reformed.
He asked, “Sentencing someone to death, but refusing to carry it out, what is the point?”
He described a situation, where only Oshiomhole had dared to sign death warrant in recent times, as a troubling and counterproductive trend in governance and justice.
He argued that governors’ reluctance stems partly from their detachment from prison management, which remained under federal control until recently.
Odenigbo further said that a major shift occurred when the late former President Muhammadu Buhari signed a Constitutional amendment in 2022.
“I think it’s because state governors are not directly supporting these inmates in prison.
“Prisons have remained in the exclusive legislative list, giving the Federal Government control over correctional facilities.
“Until about two years ago, 2022 or thereabouts, Buhari assented to a bill that amended that part of the constitution,” he said.
Odenigbo said that the amendment moved prisons from the exclusive list to the concurrent legislative list, allowing states to establish correctional facilities.
“That is why some states, like Abia, recently passed their own correctional service laws.
“This now enables the state governments to have their own state correctional facilities,” he said.
Odenigbo said the shift should compel governors to take greater responsibility for inmates and prison costs.
“If the State Government now starts budgeting a lot of money to feed inmates, they’ll understand what it takes,” he said.
He argued that many on death row inmates were unproductive and placed economic strain on already stretched government budgets,” Odenigbo said.
He concluded that governors might reconsider their position on capital punishment, if they directly feel the financial burden.
“They remain there, eating, and doing nothing, while the government bears the cost,” he said.
Odenigbo also explained that Nigeria’s legal method of execution remains hanging, though firing squad was once used, and some countries apply lethal injection.
He argued that regardless of the method, the death penalty serves no useful purpose and fails to deter crime.
“If capital punishment stopped crime, we wouldn’t still have armed robbery, kidnapping and terrorism,” he said.
He recalled the era when armed robbers were executed by firing squad and yet violent crimes still persisted.
Odenigbo argued that Nigeria should abolish death penalty completely and embrace justice reform and rehabilitation strategies.
He also criticised the “political reluctance” by the governors to exercise their constitutional power of the prerogative of mercy.
“There’s a committee that visits prisons and recommends pardon, but the final decision lies with the governor,” Odenigbo said.
He said that many condemned prisoners could benefit from parole or reduced sentences, especially those who were reformed.
“Prison should correct, not destroy, but without review, these people are just locked up indefinitely,” Odenigbo said.
Some other respondents called for the removal of the statutory power and responsibility given to the governors in the execution of convicted capital offenders due to their reluctance to sign death warrants.
The State Legal Adviser to African Democratic Congress in Abia, Chief Emenike Azubuike, recommended a legislation that allows for execution without governor’s approval.
Azubuike, an Umuahia-based legal practitioner and Chairman of Isuikwuato Lawyers’ Forum, argued that once the law condemns someone the person should be executed.
According to him, the execution or death penalty is a means to protect the society from individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety.
“People kill their fellow human beings these days like chicken and if you abolish death sentence, they get away with the atrocity and continue the killing spree.
“Sometimes, they kill relations of those governors, who are even reluctant to sign the death warrant too,” he said.
Supporting the view, a retired civil servant, Mr Linus Ogbonna, also alleged that some governors were hesitant to sign the death warrant although “it is constitutional because they are corrupt”.
He said that during the military era, sole administrators were more inclined to signing the law, “which instilled fear in criminals and ensured some level of sanity in society.
“The death sentence is constitutional and the law must be followed to the letter, if we must maintain peace and order in society.
“Our prisons are congested because of the reluctance of governors to signing the death warrant of those convicted for the past 15 years to 20 years or thereabouts,” he said.
In a similar vein, a legal practitioner, Mr Okey Kanu, warned against abolishing death penalty, but urged the governors to perform their statutory responsibility of signing death warrants.
Kanu, a retiree from the state Ministry of Justice and the Coordinator, Abia Pensioners’ Forum, warned about repercussions for non application of the law in cases of treason, homicide, and armed robbery.
He said: The fact that some governors fail to do the needful doesn’t mean that it should be abrogated outright.
“If you look at it from the perspective of someone who has taken a life, he is liable to have his own life taken.
“If you say there is nothing like death sentence again, you are giving a leeway to the convicts to go and do whatever they want.
“That is why the governors should exercise that power so as to deter some people from going to the extreme in committing certain crimes.” (NAN)
