Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the federation, Akinlolu Olujinmi (SAN), has announced plans to reform the judiciary and address the issue of death penalty in the country.
He said at the public presentation of the report of the National Study Group on Death Penalty inaugurated in November 2003, that there was great concern for improvement in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria.
Also speaking, the permanent secretary of the ministry of justice and Solicitor-General of the federation, Professor Ignatus Ayua, said that the report will be a major input to determine whether or not to limit the powers of the state to take life.
Chairperson of the study group, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose, stated that the group discovered that the death penalty was widely regarded as the solution to the widely perceived failure of the criminal justice system in the country.
She said that the public and government agencies in Nigeria have the perception of high crime rate which has caused widespread feelings of fear and insecurity, especially as they feel that the Nigeria police was losing the fight against crime, a situation which they blamed on the inefficiency of the criminal justice system which does not act as a deterrent to crime.
Another finding of the groups which he pointed out, was criticism about the way the criminal justice system treat victims of crime, especially women and children. “Majority of the people who participated in our public sittings opined that the justice system has marginalised victims, does not respond to their needs, but those of the offenders.”
She noted that the federal government needed to take concrete and practical steps to assure Nigerians that the discourse on death penalty and criminal justice reforms in general was not aimed at undermining any particular faith, but was aimed at facilitating a process of the justice sector reforms.
She also noted the high level of cynicism among justice sector stakeholders and the ability and political will on the part of the federal government to undertake the necessary far-reaching reforms that is required in the administration of justice, as a result of several initiatives undertaken in the sector which have not been implemented.
Some of the recommended policy options for the federal government as given by the study group include investment in the justice system, which has frequently been described as ineffective, unjust and repressive. “The widely held perception of the failure of the criminal justice system places a responsibility on the government to rethink on its current investments in the system.”
The study group recommended the need for a clear national policy on justice sector reforms, a key part of which must be a national crime prevention strategy which will include concrete measures to redesign and strengthen the system. “This should essentially promote a victim-centred approach to crime prevention that places the rights and needs of victims of crime at the centre.”
While expressing concern over the deplorable conditions under which about 500 inmates on death row in Nigeria are imprisoned, the groupsrecommended that the sentence of all inmates presently on death row whose appeals have been concluded be commuted to life imprisonment.
The group further called for an official moratorium on all executions until the criminal justice system can ensure fundamental fairness and due process in capital cases and minimise the risk that innocent people will be executed.
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