LEDAP condemns secret executions in Edo Prison
(Nigeria) A civil society group, Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP, has condemned the execution on December 23, 2016 of three death row inmates of Oko Prisons, Edo State following the death warrants signed by the Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
Those executed were Ogbomoro Omoregie, Apostle Igene and
Mark Omosowhota. They were all convicted and sentenced to death about 20 years
ago by military tribunals under the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions)
Decree as amended.
In an earlier petition submitted to the governor by the
executed prisoners on December 21, 2016 through LEDAP, protesting the plan for
their execution, the prisoners had pleaded with the governor to shelve the planned
execution because there was a pending case at the Court of Appeal, Lagos
brought by all death row prisoners in Nigeria against their execution.
The appeal had not been decided and it was therefore,
illegal to carry out the executions, Mr Chino Obiagwu, National Coordinator of LEDAP
had argued in the earlier petition.
He said that they were appalled that the earliest social
duty of Governor Obaseki upon assumption of office was execution of his citizen
on death row.
“We reiterate that all prisoners, including those sentenced
to death, retain all the fundamental rights endowed on all citizens by the 1999
constitution. This was re-amphasized by the Court of Appeal in the case of
Peter Nemi v Attorney General of Lagos State in 1994. The Supreme Court of
Nigeria also held in Nasir Bello v Attorney-General of Oyo State that a
prisoner cannot be legally executed while his case is pending in court.
“In so far as an appeal against the sentences of the death
row prisoners in Nigeria are pending in court, to the knowledge of the prison
authorities and the government who participated in the high court proceedings
before the appeal, there is no legal justification for the Edo executions, more
so when it was carried out cruelly on a day to the eve of Christmas.
“It is also appalling that Edo State Government carried out the execution despite the
declaration by Nigerian government at its 2009 and 2014 Unversal Periodic
Reports, UPR, to the United Nations Human Rights Council that Nigeria has put
in place a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
“The December 23 execution of these three prisoners, as well
as similar execution of four prisoners on June 21, 2013 by the same Edo State Government
have undermined Nigeria's declarations
to the international community for death penalty moratorium.
“LEDAP calls on the Nigerian government to stop all death
penalty executions forthwith. The National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly should amend the
Criminal Code and Penal Code as well as the Robbery and Firearms ( Special
Provisions) Act to remove death sentence as punishment for crimes and replace
it with life imprisonment or term of years sentence,” he added.
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