Mohammed Shosanya
Avocats Sans Frontières France (Lawyers without Borders France), has assessed Nigeria’s compliance with the global campaign against death penalty,saying the country has made progress on the abolition of the practice.
According to the group,between 2007 – 2016, there were seven executions in Nigeria with the last one occurring in 2016.
This action is a clear sign of progress in the movement against the death penalty in Nigeria, the Country Director of ASF France in Nigeria, Angela Uwandu Uzoma-Iwuchukwu,told a media conference in commemoration of the World Day Against the Death Penalty
She, however, said there must be conscious efforts to increase the voices in the advocacy against the death penalty to guarantee total abolishment of this practice in Nigeria.
She added:“The death penalty should have no place in our justice system. It is against the very principle of reformative and restorative justice. No state should have the power to take someone’s life. Today, we urge the Nigerian government to reflect on its continued use of the death penalty in Nigeria and take steps to join the other 27 African countries who have completely abolished the death penalty and other 14 de-facto abolitionist country in the continent. We recommend the establishment of an official moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition”.
She re-emphasized that the death penalty should be completely abolished from all justice systems as it flagrantly violates the fundamental right to life.
According to her, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) acknowledges the inherent every right to life for every individual, thus, any attempt to end a person’s life in the name of justice even by a state is a violation of this right.
She said,the death penalty is also discriminatory pattern in its application worldwide, the death penalty is disproportionately used against disadvantaged people, particularly the poor.
She added:”This year’s theme emphasizes the concept of ‘irreversible torture’. The execution of the death penalty itself is an irreversible cruel act offering no room for amendments to verdict in light of new evidence. The death penalty also doesn’t serve as a deterrent, as countries that practice it continue to experience an increase in crime rates. The path leading to execution is usually paved with torture and psychological trauma for all parties involved including the detainee, lawyers, officials and most importantly the victim’s families”
ASF France in Nigeria commemorates this day with a panel discussion themed ‘death penalty: an irreversible torture’ and a movie screening of the movie ‘shepherds and butchers’. The activities are aimed at sensitising a critical mass of people on the death penalty and the dire need for its abolition in Nigeria.
