It is not uncommon in human history to find a group of people
swimming against the tide. Such is the case with the retentionists
of the death penalty as they still chant their vindictive
refrain-“…….full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Signifying
nothing, in the sense that it serves no useful purpose. It was
Ghandi who said that “an eye for an eye would soon make the whole
world blind”.
It serves no useful purpose-just an outlet, a vent to appease
angry emotions. Even the deterrent value of the death penalty has
been faulted by experts who have examined the rate of recidivism.
It is on record in Nigeria that after the civil war which occurred
between 1967- 1970,the rate of Armed Robbery sky rocketed to high
heavens due to unemployment, dislocations, and free availability of
arms .The Armed Robbery tribunals were set up to deal with the
matter with its attendant public executions-gory entertainments as
one commentator once put it. The public executions were meant to
deter would-be robbers from enlisting in the infamous profession.
But these did not deter anybody. Statistics showed that the robbers
became more daring and more brutal and merciless-as if to say that
they realize that if they are caught, they would be cut into
pieces.
The death penalty has lost its acceptance in modern civilized
reasoning. Even a repudiation of the death penalty is a condition
for admission into the European Union. In an era where the 21st
Century man is thinking of going to reside in other planets, some
people are still promoting that we send men to the gallows. This is
anachronistic to say the least. Even the president of COREN
(Council for the regulation of engineering in Nigeria) sometime
ago, while commenting on the incessant collapsing of buildings in
Nigeria, suggested that the death penalty be extended to the
builders of such collapsed buildings. An African proverb says that
“it is only the spectators that are at ease in a wrestling match”.
The real stress lies with the wrestlers. It is one thing to
champion the retention of the death penalty with apostolic zeal; it
is a different ball game to actually carry out the order. The ugly
task of carrying out such monstrous orders is reserved for a group
of men-the judicial officers, prosecuting legal officers, police
officers, the prison officers, and the chief host, the
Hangman!.
As a young law student on attachment before Justice Desalu who
had the herculean task of convicting and sentencing the cocaine
dealers to death in Nigeria under Decree 20 of 1984 and who were
subsequently publicly executed, I asked him how he felt after
delivering a sentence that would mean the death of someone. He
replied that as long as you are convinced that you are dispensing
judgment as prescribed by law, then your conscience is clear. Even
at that I did not envy him then. As a young prosecutor before the
late Hon. Justice G.C. Akoro of blessed memory, I felt uneasy after
securing a first death sentence before him in the case of State v.
Monday Evrele at Sapele High Court. After the judgement, the
accused started weeping openly in court and I wondered if it could
not be said that I have contributed to the impending “judicial
homicide” as Charles Dickens puts it.
The dreg of this odd job is reserved for the hangman; the
hangman –the doer of the states dirty job, whose identity is often
shrouded in mystery. Why should we encourage such a cold-blooded
and infamous profession? Most of our lawgivers and those
championing the death penalty cannot stand the act of “execution”
of a chicken, yet they expect someone out there to carry out such a
monstrous order. A certain remorseful hangman in the U.S. by name
Clinton T. Duffy after seeing the flesh turned from the condemned
man’s face by the rope, his swollen tongue, swinging legs and
odours of urine, defecation, sweat and caking blood, had this to
say “ it would do if the people get to know exactly how their
mandates were carried out. Every Juror who ever voted for the death
penalty, every judge whoever pronounced sentence, every legislator
who helped pass the law that make it necessary for us to go through
this ordeal should have been with me today ‘’
The Edo state situation presents a worrisome one where on the
eve of Christmas eve 2016 death rows prisoners in Benin City were
killed on account of death warrant signed by His Excellency Godwin
Obaseki. His predecessor Comrade Adams Oshiomole had earlier, on
June 21 2013 similarly executed 4 prisoners in Benin City.
Meanwhile, Nigeria had earlier on signed a moratorium on the death
penalty. Perhaps if the real act of execution was witnessed by the
men who authorized it, there would have been a rethink and we would
have won proselytes.
The Delta State situation is rather commendable with the former
Governor Dr Emmanuel Uduagha withholding his assent to the
Anti-kidnapping and Anti-Terrorism bill and the present Governor
His Excellency Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa introducing the
Anti-kidnapping law 2016 to expunge the death penalty from the
former Anti-kidnapping and Terrorism law, 2013 which the House of
Assembly had gone ahead to re-pass by two-third majority after the
erstwhile Governor had withheld his assent under section 100(5) of
the 1999 constitution (as amended). This is highly commendable and
an example of what progressive leadership is all about .Both
Excellencies stood true to the Hippocratic Oath that they had
subscribed to – they being medical doctors. The whole idea of
leadership is to lead the masses from ‘’ Egypt to Canaan’’, from
darkness into light. It is anachronistic to still be fanning the
embers and romancing the ideas of the death penalty which had its
origin in human sacrifices when man was in the primitive stages of
evolution.
It is a thing of great concern and a cause of serious sober
reflection to note that of all the countries in the world, 141 have
abolished the death penalty while Nigeria is still ranked among the
56 desperate ones that still hold on to the death penalty. Such
mere countries like Angola, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo have all
gone ahead to abolish defacto or dejure the death penalty, yet our
retentionists are still pressing on. Like the American hangman
said, maybe it is time for them to go on a regular excursion to the
real theatre where their mandate is carried out, after all a
Nigerian proverb says that “if a child claims to be too wise, you
give him an ant to slaughter .“
By: Barrister Ben Ijeoma Adigwe
Director of Advisory Services,
Ministry of Justice
Asaba
www.benadigwe.com
It is not uncommon in human history to find a group of people
swimming against the tide. Such is the case with the retentionists
of the death penalty as they still chant their vindictive
refrain-“…….full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Signifying
nothing, in the sense that it serves no useful purpose. It was
Ghandi who said that “an eye for an eye would soon make the whole
world blind”.
It serves no useful purpose-just an outlet, a vent to appease
angry emotions. Even the deterrent value of the death penalty has
been faulted by experts who have examined the rate of recidivism.
It is on record in Nigeria that after the civil war which occurred
between 1967- 1970,the rate of Armed Robbery sky rocketed to high
heavens due to unemployment, dislocations, and free availability of
arms .The Armed Robbery tribunals were set up to deal with the
matter with its attendant public executions-gory entertainments as
one commentator once put it. The public executions were meant to
deter would-be robbers from enlisting in the infamous profession.
But these did not deter anybody. Statistics showed that the robbers
became more daring and more brutal and merciless-as if to say that
they realize that if they are caught, they would be cut into
pieces.
The death penalty has lost its acceptance in modern civilized
reasoning. Even a repudiation of the death penalty is a condition
for admission into the European Union. In an era where the 21st
Century man is thinking of going to reside in other planets, some
people are still promoting that we send men to the gallows. This is
anachronistic to say the least. Even the president of COREN
(Council for the regulation of engineering in Nigeria) sometime
ago, while commenting on the incessant collapsing of buildings in
Nigeria, suggested that the death penalty be extended to the
builders of such collapsed buildings. An African proverb says that
“it is only the spectators that are at ease in a wrestling match”.
The real stress lies with the wrestlers. It is one thing to
champion the retention of the death penalty with apostolic zeal; it
is a different ball game to actually carry out the order. The ugly
task of carrying out such monstrous orders is reserved for a group
of men-the judicial officers, prosecuting legal officers, police
officers, the prison officers, and the chief host, the
Hangman!.
As a young law student on attachment before Justice Desalu who
had the herculean task of convicting and sentencing the cocaine
dealers to death in Nigeria under Decree 20 of 1984 and who were
subsequently publicly executed, I asked him how he felt after
delivering a sentence that would mean the death of someone. He
replied that as long as you are convinced that you are dispensing
judgment as prescribed by law, then your conscience is clear. Even
at that I did not envy him then. As a young prosecutor before the
late Hon. Justice G.C. Akoro of blessed memory, I felt uneasy after
securing a first death sentence before him in the case of State v.
Monday Evrele at Sapele High Court. After the judgement, the
accused started weeping openly in court and I wondered if it could
not be said that I have contributed to the impending “judicial
homicide” as Charles Dickens puts it.
The dreg of this odd job is reserved for the hangman; the
hangman –the doer of the states dirty job, whose identity is often
shrouded in mystery. Why should we encourage such a cold-blooded
and infamous profession? Most of our lawgivers and those
championing the death penalty cannot stand the act of “execution”
of a chicken, yet they expect someone out there to carry out such a
monstrous order. A certain remorseful hangman in the U.S. by name
Clinton T. Duffy after seeing the flesh turned from the condemned
man’s face by the rope, his swollen tongue, swinging legs and
odours of urine, defecation, sweat and caking blood, had this to
say “ it would do if the people get to know exactly how their
mandates were carried out. Every Juror who ever voted for the death
penalty, every judge whoever pronounced sentence, every legislator
who helped pass the law that make it necessary for us to go through
this ordeal should have been with me today ‘’
The Edo state situation presents a worrisome one where on the
eve of Christmas eve 2016 death rows prisoners in Benin City were
killed on account of death warrant signed by His Excellency Godwin
Obaseki. His predecessor Comrade Adams Oshiomole had earlier, on
June 21 2013 similarly executed 4 prisoners in Benin City.
Meanwhile, Nigeria had earlier on signed a moratorium on the death
penalty. Perhaps if the real act of execution was witnessed by the
men who authorized it, there would have been a rethink and we would
have won proselytes.
The Delta State situation is rather commendable with the former
Governor Dr Emmanuel Uduagha withholding his assent to the
Anti-kidnapping and Anti-Terrorism bill and the present Governor
His Excellency Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa introducing the
Anti-kidnapping law 2016 to expunge the death penalty from the
former Anti-kidnapping and Terrorism law, 2013 which the House of
Assembly had gone ahead to re-pass by two-third majority after the
erstwhile Governor had withheld his assent under section 100(5) of
the 1999 constitution (as amended). This is highly commendable and
an example of what progressive leadership is all about .Both
Excellencies stood true to the Hippocratic Oath that they had
subscribed to – they being medical doctors. The whole idea of
leadership is to lead the masses from ‘’ Egypt to Canaan’’, from
darkness into light. It is anachronistic to still be fanning the
embers and romancing the ideas of the death penalty which had its
origin in human sacrifices when man was in the primitive stages of
evolution.
It is a thing of great concern and a cause of serious sober
reflection to note that of all the countries in the world, 141 have
abolished the death penalty while Nigeria is still ranked among the
56 desperate ones that still hold on to the death penalty. Such
mere countries like Angola, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo have all
gone ahead to abolish defacto or dejure the death penalty, yet our
retentionists are still pressing on. Like the American hangman
said, maybe it is time for them to go on a regular excursion to the
real theatre where their mandate is carried out, after all a
Nigerian proverb says that “if a child claims to be too wise, you
give him an ant to slaughter .“
By: Barrister Ben Ijeoma Adigwe
Director of Advisory Services,
Ministry of Justice
Asaba
www.benadigwe.com
Read more https://nairalaw.com/the-executors-of-the-death-penalty/