500 Inmates On Death Row, Says Panel
From Emmanuel Onwubiko (Abuja)
NO Fewer than 500 Nigerian inmates are on death row in prisons across the country, a national study group raised by the Federal Government has said in a report.
The group, which was set up to review the policy of death penalty for capital offences decried that what it described as deplorable condition under which the inmates are imprisoned.
In its report submitted to the Attorney-General and Justice Minister Chief Akin Olujimi (SAN) in Abuja yesterday, the panel recommended that the sentences of all inmates now on death row whose appeals have been concluded should be commuted to life imprisonment.
Besides, the study group headed by Prof. Olyemisi Bamgbose recommended that government should use legislative means in the National Assembly to impose a moratorium (suspension) on the enforcement of death penalty.
The panel, which noted that the average period spent on death row by prison inmates is between 10 and 15 years said many of these persons had been diagnosed for various mental ailments.
On the recommendation for moratorium on death penalty, the group said: "The call for an official moratorium on all execution is borne out of the conviction that the Federal Government can no longer ignore the systemic problems that long have existed in the criminal justice system. These problems have been exacerbated by limited funding of criminal justice agencies, inadequate training of personnel and inadequate legal aid scheme."
Other recommendations of the group given by Bamgbose include investment in the justice system, saying that the administration of justice system inherited from several years of military rule posed serious challenges for the new democratic government.
She said: "The Nigerian Criminal Justice System has frequently been described as ineffective, unjust and repressive. The reason for this includes the colonial legacy of repression on which the institution was founded, poor working conditions, inadequate training and motivation, manipulation of the agencies by successive governments in the country to silence opposition."
The group affirmed: "Specifically, the police are generally seen as corrupt, repressive and ineffective. The prisons are staffed by poorly paid, inadequately motivated and insufficiently trained officials.
"Judicial officers particularly of the lower court are generally overworked, underpaid and lack the necessary court infrastructure and equipment to enable them work efficiently.
"In addition, many of the systems and processes inherited by Ministries of Justice have largely led to inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The old framework for justice and the laws of Nigeria have to be transformed to reflect the demands of a democratic society."
According to the group, "this widely held perception of the failure of the criminal justice system places a responsibility on the Federal Government to rethink its current investment in the justice system and decide whether it is adequate or not."
The study group according to the chairman, is of the belief that the National Economic Empowerment Strategy (NEEDS) provides a platform for the government to think of justice as a sector in the same way as health, education and agriculture.
Said the registrar: "That is the need for a clear national policy on justice sector reform. They should set out the official vision of the reform objectives and commitment to specific reforms necessary to realise that vision.
The broad parameters for such a policy can presently be found in the Attorney-General's Agenda for Justice Sector Reform in Nigeria. It is important that a key part of this policy must be a National Crime Prevention Strategy, which will include concrete measures for redesigning and strengthening the criminal justice system.
"This strategy should essentially promote a victim-centric approach to crime prevention where the onus is on the government to deliver a crime prevention approach that places the rights and needs of victims of crime at the centre of the strategy."
Specifically the report noted the need to:
- improve the access of dis-empowered groups to the criminal justice system, including women, children and victims in general;
- redesign the criminal justice system to empower victims;
- provide a greater and more meaningful role for victims in the criminal justice system;
- improve the service delivered by the criminal justice process to victims of crime; and
- deal with the damage caused by criminal acts by providing remedial interventions for victims.
In his remarks, the minister affirmed that government had not suspended the enforcement of the death penalty.
Olujimi who applauded the work of the study group stated that by next year, a definite stand on the desirability or otherwise of the death penalty would be adopted.
|
