Traditionally, the Nigerian customary laws recognized the death penalty as an appropriate way of eliminating offenders dangerous to the community. As of then, such offences include murder, witchcraft, adultery and profanity to the gods. With the advent of British rule and the consequent abolition of customary criminal and penal codes, capital crimes were reduced to include murder, treachery, treason and participating in a trial resulting in death of the innocent. The military government of Nigeria from 1966 to 1979 added a number of crimes punishable by death. They included armed robbery, setting fire to public buildings, ships or aircraft, dealing in Indian hemp and sabotaging the production and distribution of petroleum products, importing and exporting mineral oil without authority, dealing with cocaine, and counterfeiting bank notes or coins. Presently, Nigerian Federal law prescribes the death penalty only for treason, homicide and armed robbery.
However, under Nigerian criminal law, various offences are punishable by death across the Federation including murder, treason, and treachery, conspiracy to commit treason, directing and controlling or presiding at an unlawful trial by ordeal which results in death. Recently, kidnapping has been added as a capital crime in some states and terrorism has been given the status of a capital offence in Nigeria. Following these laws, on January 16, 2023, an Osun State High Court sitting in Osogbo sentenced six men to death by hanging in two separate cases after convicting them of armed robbery and murder offences. The convicts are Hammed Rafiu, Rasidi Waidi, Kayode Sunday, Owolabi Bashiru, Mutiu Azeez and Afolabi Mayowa.
Victim gave them all the cash he had and transferred additional N3 million.
In the first case, Justice Jide Falola sentenced Hammed Rafiu (37), Rasidi Waidi (39), Kayode Sunday (29), and Owolabi Bashiru (54) to death for robbing and killing a Lagos-based businessman and ex-staff of FCMB, Mr. Victor Akinbile, said to be a relative of the immediate past Osun State Deputy Governor, Mr. Benedict Alabi. Akinbile had visited Osun on November 26, 2018, to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the former Governor Adeboyega Oyetola, and went to Ikirun to pass the night in his uncle’s house when he was attacked by the four men. One of the defendants, Owolabi, a security guard working in a house opposite where the victim wanted to pass the night, informed three others about his arrival.
The four men forcefully gained entrance into the victim’s room and demanded a sum of N10 million but that Akinbile who did not have such amount on him first surrendered all the cash he had and transferred an additional N3 million to a bank account belonging to one of the assailants, Ahmed Rafiu. They later seized Akinbile and locked him up in the trunk of his Toyota Camry and drove him to Dominion Camp area on old Iragbiji Road along Ikirun/Osogbo Road, where they set his car ablaze and watched him die in the trunk of the burning vehicle.
NCoS said 3166 inmates on death row in Nigeria as of Dec. 12, 2022.
CGC Haliru Nababa, Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS), stated at a media parley in Abuja on December 15, 2022 that a total of 3,166 inmates are presently on death row in Nigeria as of December 12, 2022. Only 62 of these convicts (representing 1.9 percent) are female. Even though the death sentence is legal in Nigeria, as the number of inmates on death row increases, executions are rare in the country. Yet, judges continue to pronounce the death penalty for offences like treason, kidnapping, murder, armed robbery and involvement with militia groups. According to Amnesty International, Nigeria has the highest death-row population in sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1999 and 2007, no inmate was executed. But between 2007 and 2017, seven inmates were executed. The group said the 621 death sentences imposed in 2017 accounted for 71 percent of all confirmed death sentences ordered in sub-Saharan Africa that year.
Nigerian courts carried out three executions in 2016 and handed out 527 death sentences, three times more than the previous year. State governors have the legal backing to sign the death warrant. But human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has said that since the return of democracy in 1999, only few governors have signed death warrants of the execution of death row inmates in the country. Many death row inmates, including those that have been condemned to death by the Supreme Court like the leader of the Christian Praying Assembly, Reverend (Chukwuemeka Ezeugo) King, continue to languish in confinement for years, awaiting execution. Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Legal Defence Assistance Programme, LEDA, Chino Obiagwu, SAN, expressed surprise that some governors said they were willing to sign death warrants notwithstanding two different cases pending in courts in Abuja and Lagos seeking to stop the execution of death row inmates.
Many senior lawyers want the death penalty gone.
The issue of the death penalty has continually stirred emotions across Nigeria’s social and political divides. While international law discourages the imposition of the death penalty, Nigeria is one of the countries that still retains the use of the death penalty in its criminal law and penal code. A total of 110 countries in the world have abolished the death sentence for all crimes, 54 countries including Nigeria still retains the provision in their laws. Many senior lawyers, including Falana (SAN), Adegboruwa (SAN), Pedro (SAN), and Sowemimo (SAN), and human rights institutions are pushing for the abolishment of the death penalty. However, others are pleading for its retention.
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Death penalty debate divides lawyers – While many senior lawyers push for its abolishment, others want its retention. – Express your point of view.
Death penalty is a capital punishment for capital offences. Although some countries have abolished it, Nigeria is still yet to finally abolish it because some prisoners are still on death row.
As the world is advancing each day there are some things that people think they are normal before but later realize that they are not good enough for human existence.
Death penalty debate divides lawyers. I think the death penalty is the best penalty for it. Other penalty should be given
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Death penalty is a big punishment while some criminal deserve it if abolish some people will not have the fear for death penalty thinking getting in jail is only option for punishment
I’m of the opinion that the death penalty should not be totally eradicated because there are some crimes that are punishable by death,I just hope the government will look into some of these laws.
The death law may seems too hard buh my it’s is a genuine law that will imbed fear in the mind of perpetrators to stay away from committing crimes. Nigeria should fully implement it for severe crimes.
Things that were once considered standard fare are increasingly being exposed as inadequate to human life as the world evolves around us.
For the few offenses that warrant it, I believe the death sentence should remain in place; I trust that the government will examine these exceptions.
The sentence of death is reserved exclusively for those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. Even if it has been done away with in other nations, Nigeria has not done so yet because there are still people waiting to be executed there.
The use of the death penalty should still remain, so as to instill fear in any willing to go into criminal acts. I hope the gov’t see reason why it should be retained.
Capital crimes were reduced to include murder, betrayal, treason, and taking part in a trial that resulted in the execution of the innocent with the introduction of British control and the subsequent abolishment of traditional criminal and penal codes.
Nigeria is one of the nations that still uses the death sentence in its criminal law and penal code, despite the fact that international law prohibits its application.
The Nigerian traditions acknowledged the use of the death sentence as an acceptable and necessary means of removing individuals who posed a threat to the community.
As a result of the establishment of British control and the subsequent elimination of traditional criminal and penal codes, the only offense that could result in the death penalty was murder.
The Nigerian military administration that was in power from 1966 until 1979 increased the number of offenses that may result in the death penalty.
It’s unfathomable that the four men forced their way into the victim’s room and then demanded a sum of N10 million.
The debate over the use of the death penalty has never failed to arouse strong feelings across all of Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political classes.
Despite the fact that the death penalty is strongly opposed by international law, Nigeria is one of the few countries that still includes it in its criminal law and penal code.
Some things that were once accepted as the standard are increasingly being seen as inadequate to sustain life as civilization evolves.