Despite being sentenced for capital crimes, no fewer than 37 condemned prisoners are awaiting execution in Bauchi State.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the State’s Command Public Relations Officer, Nigerian Correctional Service, Mr Ahmed Tata, disclosed this in an interview on Tuesday.
Tata reportedly revealed that the condemned prisoners comprised 36 males and one female
He recalled that none of the democratically elected governors in the state had signed death warrants since 1999.
According to him, governors during the military might have signed death warrants for those on death row.
NAN revealed that a legal luminary, Jubrin S. Jubrin, urged the state governors in the country to expedite signing the death warrant of condemned prisoners to ensure justice.
Jubrin said the actions of the governors might be connected to the dismal number of condemned prisoners in the country.
“The governors must make sure that once the court has sentenced somebody to death and he has exhausted the chances of appeal, the sentence should be executed.
“Although, signing of a death warrant also depends on a particular state, depending on its geographical location and culture, it might be the factors on how these responsibilities are to be handled.
“Secondly, the role of the office of the Attorney General as the chief law officer of a state, each Attorney General has a binding duty to offer legal advice on all legal matters, including the exercise of the power to sign death warrants by the governors.
“We need to know, are there very many? If there are many, probably, it would have raised a concern as to why are we keeping as much as the number of people awaiting execution?
“Why not just forgive them if the governor wants to or if he is committing to the execution, it should be done once and for all,” he said.
The Chairman, Network for Civil Society Organisations in Bauchi, Mr Garba Jinjiri, highlighted that irreversibility of execution was one of the reasons behind the governors’ reluctance to sign the death warrant.
“What I mean here is that if a mistake is later discovered, like a wrongful conviction, it cannot be corrected after execution. Also, some convicts may still have cases under appeal or awaiting decisions from higher courts.
“I also want to believe that some governors personally believe in the sanctity of life or oppose capital punishment on ethical grounds,” he said.
