ABUJA — The Federal Government was weekend advised to place official moratorium on executions of inmates on death row in the country pending the time the nation’s criminal justice system would ensure fundamental fairness and due process in capital cases.
According to a nine-member National Study Group on Death Penalty which gave the advisory opinion, yesterday, in Abuja, “a system that would take a life must first give justice.”
The group, yesterday, also recommended to the Federal Government that the sentences of all inmates presently on death row in the country whose appeals have been concluded should be commuted to life imprisonment.
Besides, the Prof Oluyemisi Bamgbose-led National Study Group also recommended that there was need to invest abundantly in the nation’s justice system now because “the Federal Government can no longer ignore the systemic problems that long have existed in the criminal justice system,” eroding people’s confidence in the system.
The group specifically said: “we found that one of the most intractable problems in death penalty administration in Nigeria is the severe lack of competent and adequately compensated counsel for indigent defendants and death row inmates seeking appeal. The limited funding and mandate of the legal aid scheme has seriously undermined the support system for lawyers taking such complex and demanding case.
“As a result, the shortage of competent lawyers for persons facing capital punishment offences has never been greater. It is particularly noteworthy and of concern tht the Legal Aid Council presently to a large extent does not provide legal assistance and advise for persons facing capital offences.
“In summary it is our opinion that there is much disturbing evidence with the current criminal justice system that cannot rely on it to produce results that are either fair or accurate. It is our views that although there may be a wide disparity of views on death penalty, there is almost universal consensus that persons who are de facto vulnerable should not be executed.
The occasion for the advisory opinions was the public presentation of the group's report to the Federal Government on the opinions of Nigerians on the desirability or otherwise of death penalty and the venue was the Conference Hall of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja.
The nine-member study group led by Prof Bamgbose, it would be recalled, was inaugurated by the Federal Government on November 13, 2003 to engage the country in a debate on whether to retain or expunge death penalty in the nation’s statute books.
