The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Death Penalty

  • Death penalty for pipeline vandals?

    Death penalty for pipeline vandals?

    THE Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Zone 2, Abdulmajeed Ali, on Monday indicated to the media that the federal government could prescribe capital punishment for pipeline vandals if things continued to look scary in the waterways and creeks. The vandals are not militants, he says, but robbers, hoodlums and kidnappers in disguise. He was not definitive about the proposal, nor did he indicate how soon that proposal could be tabled. He also did not disclose the identity of those sponsoring that drastic proposal. Given the scale of the problem of pipeline vandalism, especially in the light of the military operations in the Arepo, Ebute-Ibafo and Ikorodu axis of Ogun and Lagos States, it is not surprising that such measures are being contemplated in certain government circles. After all, in some one-party democracies such as China, economic sabotage attracts capital punishment.

    There is no doubt the scale of pipeline sabotage in many parts of the country is simply staggering and, like treasury looting, deserves the harshest treatment to extirpate it. There is also no doubt that the slothful handling of the problem had encouraged vandals to turn pipeline sabotage into an industry. And given the economic downturn being experienced in the country, it is absolutely intolerable for a few to be allowed to expropriate the resources of the majority.  It is therefore sensible for those saddled with law enforcement, and indeed all long-suffering Nigerians, to desire the harshest punishment for pipeline vandalism.

    But once capital punishment has been prescribed for pipeline vandalism, there is no higher punishment left to seek. In fact, contrary to the logic that underpins it, that penalty lures the society into complacency, believing that that heaviest of punishments is enough deterrence. Tragically, it is often not. Indeed, it reflects poor, unscientific thinking, and slow and lazy law enforcement . Some states have instituted capital punishment for kidnapping, but that crime has become even more widespread, vicious and entrenched. Capital punishment has been in place for decades for armed robbery, but it has not had a dent on the crime, not even with proven extrajudicial killing of suspects, some of them framed. These crimes are doubtless horrendous, and the society is rightly desperate to want to bring them to heel. But it is time to study these crimes and, rather than the ad hoc and emotive approach to controlling them, design appropriate and more effective controls and punishment.

    Campaigning for capital punishment for pipeline vandalism is a knee-jerk reaction to a crime that should not have been allowed to morph into a deadly and desperate crime in the first instance. Wearied citizens and harassed security agencies celebrate dramatic battles against crimes like the ongoing campaigns against pipeline vandals in the Southwest, Boko Haram in the Northeast, and militants in the Niger Delta. But these crimes, especially the huge monsters they have become, reflect the poverty of thinking in high places and the impotence, if not collusion, of the government in fighting them. There will always be crime: if not armed robbery, then kidnapping, and if not kidnapping, then pipeline sabotage. What these crimes call for is not simply to look for the harshest deterrence but to engage a scientific approach to combating them, beginning from a scientific study of the crimes to understanding their nature and causes, and to designing remedial measures and punishment in order to achieve a lasting impact on them. For once death penalty fails to provide the deterrence the government expects, the temptation to throw hands in the air in despair and resignation is strong and irresistible.

    It is time to embrace the right, but perhaps hard, approach. There are many crimes the death penalty has not resolved. Adding pipeline vandalism to it is a barren and escapist exercise that demonstrate the poverty of thinking that suffuses Nigeria. The country should more sensibly think its way out of the crimes that buffet it. Death penalty has never been a useful and potent deterrence. It won’t acquire that desired image with pipeline vandalism.

  • Death penalty: Group hails Delta govt

    Death penalty: Group hails Delta govt

    A group, the Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Nigeria), has praised the decision of the Delta State House of Assembly to abolish death penalty for convicted kidnappers in the state.

    The group’s Executive Director, Sylvester Uhaa, who described CURE-Nigeria as “a justice/prison reforms and human rights organisation,” called on the Senate and House of Representatives to take a cue from the state and drop the proposed legislation to impose capital punishment on kidnappers in the country.

    Uhaa, in a statement in Abuja, noted that available data and lessons from other jurisdiction show that the death penalty does not deter crime.

    “The death penalty is only an emotional and violent response to crime, which does not really solve crime, but perpetuate more violence and create more victims,” Uhaa, an advocate for the universal abolishment of the death penalty and a Commonwealth Scholar in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, “he said.

    Uhaa urged the Federal Government to expunge capital punishment from it laws in line with the call of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Ban Ki-moon on all countries to abolish the death penalty.

    He called on stakeholders to address the causes of crime, such as unemployment, corruption, and exclusion of people as some of the ways to reduce the high rate of kidnapping and other crimes in the country.

  • Will death penalty end kidnapping?

    Will death penalty end kidnapping?

    In two months last year, there were 225 kidnap cases in 23 states. In October alone, there were 108 kidnappings and sea piracy in 24 states, with 180 victims, including 26 foreigners. Alarmed, the Senate has proposed capital punishment for kidnappers. Can this stem the tide? ROBERT EGBE writes. 

    “I slept on the bare floor inside the bush throughout. My abductors covered their faces and changed locations as they moved about four times daily to avoid arrest. I had severe backache; I was drenched in the rain and was fed only bread and soft drink.”

    -Chief Olu Falae (77), narrating his four-day experience in a kidnapper’s den last September.

    Numbers do not lie. Or do they? In its Global Kidnap Review 2016, NYA International, a crisis prevention and response group, listed Nigeria 10th among “severe threat countries” for kidnapping.

    The top five countries on the list are Libya, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, all are torn or recovering from a war.

    NYA said last year, “severe” kidnapping was perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria; there was also politically-motivated abduction of high-profile nationals.

    The group added: “There  has,  however, been  an  increase  in  wealthy,  prominent  victims,  indicating a  shift  towards  criminally-motivated kidnappings.

    “The line between piracy and kidnapping has become increasingly blurred as wealthy locals are increasingly being targeted.”

    A report by Reuters in February said at least two persons are kidnapped each month. It identified the kidnap hubs to include the Niger Delta “with the threat from both militants and armed gangs.”

    It continued: “Ransoms for foreign nationals range from $28,000 to $204,000, with ransom payments for Nigerians generally less than $100,000. Time spent in captivity is varied, with the longest period some 465 days.”

    At the18th African Reinsurance Forum of African Insurance Organisation (AIO) hosted by the Insurance Institute of Mauritius in 2012, Nigeria was designated as the global capital for kidnap for ransom.

    AIO said: “The number of kidnaps for ransom in Africa continued to increase. In the first half of 2011, Africa’s proportion of the global total increased from 23 per cent in 2010 to 34 per cent. Nigeria is now the kidnap for ransom capital of the world, accounting for a quarter of globally reported cases.”

    It said there was an upsurge in the demand for terrorism insurance to provide financial cover in the event of a kidnap.

    On April 15, 2014, perhaps Nigeria’s most high profile kidnap incident occurred with the abduction of 276 female students by Boko Haram; 219 of them are yet to be found.

    Also abducted were Mike Ozekhome (SAN) (August 23, 2013), Mrs. Toyin Nwosu, the wife of Mr Steven Nwosu, Deputy Managing Director, The Sun Newspaper; Sheikh Adam Idoko, Deputy Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), who was kidnapped in Ogrute Enugu-Ezike on September 3.

    Last September 21, national leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and one-time presidential candidate Chief Olu Falae was also abducted, while last Tuesday, former Minister of State for Education Senator Iyabo Anisulowo regained her freedom after seven days with her abductors. A leading Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie, was also kidnapped, as well as wife of Supreme Court Justice, Doyin Rhodes-Vivour.

     Death penalty for kidnappers? 

     In response to the surge, seven states — Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo enacted laws making kidnapping punishable by death.

    They have since been joined by Cross River, Kogi, Bayelsa, and Edo States.

    The first capital punishment convictions for kidnapping were recorded last Friday in Ebonyi State, when an Abakaliki High Court sentenced two persons, Onyemachi Oge and Okechukwu Oma, to death by hanging for kidnapping a medical doctor.

    Justice Eze Udu found them guilty of abducting Dr. Chuka Manyike of the Paediatrics Department, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, on May 5, 2013, at his private hospital at 15, Owerri Street, Abakaliki.

    They were said to have received N200,000 from the N3 million ransom that was paid before the doctor was released after six days in captivity.

    This action by the states is soon to be replicated at federal level with the resolution by the Senate on May 4, to enact a countrywide legislation prescribing the death penalty for kidnappers.

    The resolution followed the submission and consideration of the report of its Joint Committee on Police Affairs, National Security and Intelligence on the “unfortunate recurrence of kidnapping and hostage-taking in Nigeria.”

    The recommendation for death penalty was recommended by Senator Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi Central) in respect of a motion on the recurrence of kidnapping and hostage-taking in Nigeria, entitled: “A National Wake-Up Call”.

    Senators were outraged that kidnapping and hostage-taking, which used to be a problem in the Southsouth and Southeast, were becoming widespread.

    The report observed that between October and November 2015, there were 225 recorded kidnap cases recorded in 23 states across the country with over N85m ransom demanded and N28m paid by victims.

    Earlier in the presentation of the report, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Abu Ibrahim, relying on another report by the Department of State Security (DSS) stated that in October 2015, there were a total of 108 kidnap and sea piracy incidents in 24 states where 180 victims, including 26 foreigners, were involved.

    The Senate also asked state governments that had not done so to enact laws that would prosecute kidnappers in their jurisdiction

    However, until the Act is passed, only Houses of Assembly can enact laws on kidnapping since it is not on the exclusive list of the Nigerian Constitution.

    Global practices

     Can death penalty deter kidnapping in Nigeria? It is possible, if the Singapore example is anything to go by.

    The United States, Singapore, Taiwan, and St. Kitts & Nevis prescribed death for the offence of kidnapping, just like China, North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

    Under the US Federal Kidnapping Act of 1932, if the victim is physically harmed in any manner during a kidnap, the crime could qualify for capital punishment.

    In Singapore, executing kidnapers is legal. The country’s Kidnapping Act of 1961 designates abduction, wrongful restraint or wrongful confinement for ransom as capital offences.

    According to a January 12, 2014 publication by online news agency, Asia One, quoting Singaporean, The New Paper, kidnapping was rare in the city-state because of the stiff penalty.

    In the report titled: “Kidnapping rare because of death penalty”, it quoted criminal lawyers, who explained that people were rarely abducted in the country because of the tough laws.

    They also noted that Singapore’s small size could also be another deterrent, as it makes it difficult to hold someone hostage for a long time.

    Singapore’s Parliamentary Reports of October 23, 2007 also quoted Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee as saying that a study had shown that “95 per cent of Singaporeans feel that the death penalty should stay.”

    Govt proposes special court

     Last Friday, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC) Chairman Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) said the Federal Government is set to create a special court to speedily try certain offenses, including kidnapping.

    He spoke in Abuja at an Anti-Corruption Summit organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice in conjunction with a group, Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and ONE Africa.

    Sagay said his committee had completed the draft of a Bill for the establishment of special court. He said the draft, which is being taken through the required legal processes, will aid the establishment of the special court to deal with the special cases speedily.

    Alternative view

     Head of Department, Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG) Dr. Adedayo Ayoade feels the Senate’s proposal might be a knee jerk reaction.

    He said: “Politicians tend to panic whenever there’s a problem, when they should think very carefully about the issues and then try to resolve it.

    “Making kidnapping a capital offence will not solve the problem because they are dealing with a society where there are significant social issues that allow for kidnapping; wide income gap, deep poverty, deteriorating economic situation, very porous and poor security environment.”

    Ayoade urged the senators to channel their energies “towards solving the nation’s problems by showing good example, letting us know how much they earn and by not spending so much money on themselves.”

    “Things like these are more likely to have a longer time effect on the nation this issue of capital offence,” he said.

    He added: “If you go to those places where the houses of kidnappers are destroyed, pulling down their homes once they are caught; has it resolved the problem?

    “So, the death penalty for kidnapping won’t solve the problem at all. They’re just trying to show that they are busy, but unfortunately they are very busy in the wrong direction.”

    On the proposal for kidnapping to be included in the jurisdiction of the proposed special court, National President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) Malachy Ugwummadu expressed reservations.

    He warned the government to avoid over-regulating the society.

    Ugwummadu said: “On the call for special court, we must try, particularly those of us in the legal community must help to ensure that our country is not over regulated, and that we don’t proliferate these courts.

    “We’re talking of special courts for robbery, corruption, kidnapping, special courts for child abuse etc. With respect, that is not how to run a society. We must deal with the fundamental causes of these vices, so as to make their occurrence impossible.”

    He added that “instead of looking in the direction of special courts, let us first consider deploying the state’s energy in reviving the security apparatus of the country.

    “There will be serious disincentive for some of these crimes if you kidnap and you are arrested in the next 48 hours. The business will completely disappear.

    “But if you kidnap and after one month you are still waxing strong and collecting money randomly from people, it’ll mean that there’s a market for it.”

    Ugwummadu said only the government could provide the kind of disincentive that is necessary.

    “It comes from the government through the security agents, and the Constitution of Nigeria under Section 14(2)(c) is that the welfare and security of the people shall be the primary responsibility of government.”

  • Lagos: Man to die by hanging for robbery

    Lagos: Man to die by hanging for robbery

    A middle aged man, Friday James, was Wednesday sentenced to death by hanging by a Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja.

    Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye handed down the death sentence after finding the convict guilty of a two count charge of armed robbery preferred against him by the office of the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution.

    The prosecution team  led by Chief State Prosecutor, Akin George, had accused the convict of the offence of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and armed robbery.
    George he told the court that the convict robbed one Olanrewaju of her jewelleries worth N100,000.
    He also accused the convict of inflicting injuries on the head and hand of the husband of the victim through the use of machetes and guns.
    ‎
    The prosecutor said the convict committed the offence, on February 17, 2012 around 3 a.m. at Ewegbemi Street, Meiran, Ajasa Command within Ikeja.
    The offence, according to the prosecution is contrary to Section 297 Criminal law of Lagos State 2011, and Section 295 subsection 2(a).
    When the charged were read to him on arraignment in 2012, James had pleaded not guilty to the two count charge preferred against him by the DPP.
    But the trial judge declared that the prosecution has proved his case beyond reasonable doubt.
    Justice Ipaye subsequently found the convict guilty on the two count charge offence and sentenced the convict to death by hanging.
  • Ayade seeks death penalty for kidnappers in Cross River

    Ayade seeks death penalty for kidnappers in Cross River

    Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, has sent an executive bill to the state House of Assembly seeking the death penalty for convicted kidnappers in the state.

    According to a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Ita, the bill also seeks to empower the state to seize property belonging to convicted kidnappers and other criminals in the state.

    It also offers rewards to citizens who offer credible information to security agencies on activities of criminals.

    Ayade also set up a security task force named “Operation Scolombo.”

    The task force which has retired General Mannings Nyiam as chairman is saddled with the responsibility of ridding the state of criminals.

    The governor also approved the appointment of Mr Jude Ngaji as the State Security Adviser.

    Ngaji was Chief of Staff to former governor, Senator Liyel Imoke.

  • Cleric advocates death penalty for corrupt public officers

    Cleric advocates death penalty for corrupt public officers

    The Anglican Bishop of Wusasa Diocese in Zaria, Kaduna State, the Rt. Rev. Ali Buba-Lamido, yesterday advocated the death penalty for corrupt public office holders.

    He made the call at the Sixth Synod of the Wusasa Diocese of the Anglican Communion, held in Zaria, Kaduna State, describing the death penalty option as the only way to put public officers in check.

    Buba-Lamido said the call became imperative in view of the fact that corruption could kill more people than a conventional weapon.

    “If our leaders know that they would be prosecuted if found corrupt they would be on their toes to avoid corrupt practices,” he said.

    He appealed to politicians to do all within their power to fulfill their campaign promises with a view to bringing succour to the electorate.

    The bishop described the level of unemployment in Nigeria as alarming and urged the new administration to adopt proactive measures to tackle the problem.

    Expressing confidence in the ability of the administration, the cleric said he had no doubt that President Muhammdu Buhari would deliver.

    On the security situation in the country, the bishop said it was bad for a country like Nigeria to have lost up to 11,000 people to Boko Haram, while he expressed satisfaction at “the approach taken by the new administration to tackle the menace of Boko Haram.”

    The synod featured presentation of awards to distinguished Nigerians, comprising Muslims, Christians, politicians and non-politicians.

    The awardees included the Emir of Zazzau, Dr Shehu Idris, a former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, former Governor of Kaduna State, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma and Rep. Abbas Tajuddeen.

     

  • Will child bride get death penalty?

    A 14-year-old girl accused of murdering her 35-year-old husband by putting rat poison in his food could face the death penalty, prosecutors said yesterday.

    The trial of Wasila Tasi’u, who is from a poor family, has sparked a heated debate on underage marriage in the North, especially whether an adolescent girl can consent to be a bride.

    Prosecutors at the High Court in Gezawa, outside  Kano, filed an amended complaint that charged Wasila with one-count of murder.

    She allegedly killed Sani two weeks after their April wedding in Unguwar Yansoro.

    Lead prosecutor Lamido Abba Soron-Dinki said if convicted, the charge is “punishable with death” and indicated the state would seek the maximum penalty.

    Nigeria is not known to have executed a juvenile offender since 1997, during the regime of the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, according to Human Rights Watch.

    Wasila entered the court wearing a cream hijab and was escorted by two policemen.

    Her parents, who have condemned their daughter’s alleged act, were in the public gallery — the first time the three were in the same room since Wasila’s arrest in April, her legal representatives said.

    The English-language charge sheet was translated into Hausa for the accused by the court clerk.

    Wasila refused to answer when asked if she understood the charges.

    The case was adjourned for 30 minutes so the charges could be explained to her, but when the alleged offence were read again, Wasila stayed silent, turned her head to the wall and broke down in tears.

    “The court records (that) she pleads not guilty,” Judge Mohammed Yahaya said, apparently regarding her silence as equal to a denial of the charge and adjourned the case until November 26.

    Activists, have called for Wasila’s release, saying she should be rehabilitated as a victim and stressing that she was raped by the man she married.

    But in the North, Islamic law operates alongside the secular criminal code.

    The affected families have denied that Wasila was forced into marriage, arguing that girls marry at 14 and that Wasila and Sani followed the traditional system of courtship.

    According to Nigeria’s Marriage Act, anyone under 21 can marry, provided they have parental consent, so evidence of an agreement between Wasila and her father, Mohammed Tasiu,  could undermine claims of a forced union.

    But defence lawyer Hussaina Aliyu has insisted that the case is not a debate about the role of youth marriage in a Muslim society.

    Instead, she has argued that under criminal law, a 14-year-old cannot be charged with murder in a high court and has demanded that the case be moved to the juvenile system.

    Nigeria defines the age of adulthood as 17, but the situation is less clear in the 12 northern states under Islamic law, where courts theoretically have the right to consider people under 17 as legally responsible.

    Guidelines for how courts should blend Islamic and secular legal codes have not been well defined.

  • The secret shame of the death penalty

    The secret shame of the death penalty

    Sooner or later, someone like Russell Bucklew was going to come along and throw a big wrench into the predictable back-and-forth debate over the constitutionality of executing people by lethal injection.

    On Wednesday night, just hours before Mr. Bucklew was scheduled to die in Missouri, the Supreme Court granted him a rare stay of execution after medical professionals found that an unusual congenital disorder would likely cause him to suffer on the executioner’s table.

    Mr. Bucklew, 46, was sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend in 1996, and then abducting, beating and raping her. He challenged the state’s plan to put him to death by lethal injection on the grounds that a condition called cavernous hemangioma — which has led to expanding vascular tumors in his head and neck — would expose him to “unique risks,” including “a substantial likelihood of hemorrhaging, choking, airway obstruction and suffocation.” The justices sent the case back to the lower courts to decide whether to hold further hearings.

    Lethal injection has already come under increased scrutiny following multiple botched executions, most recently Oklahoma’s appalling 43-minute torture of Clayton Lockett last month. Multiple legal challenges to the procedure have centered on whether states may keep secret the drug protocols they use and the shady compounding pharmacies that make them.

    But Missouri is now tasked with finding a way to kill Mr. Bucklew that doesn’t hurt too much. At least state officials let him live until the Supreme Court ruled on the case, a courtesy they did not extend to another death-row inmate, Herbert Smulls, in January.

    Welcome to the macabre absurdity of the modern American death penalty. Of course, death by lethal injection became the standard method only because earlier methods — from hanging to the firing squad to the electric chair — were deemed too “barbaric,” not because the state was taking a human life, but because the method of execution offended the sensitivities of the public in whose name the killing is carried out.

    By now, it is clear that lethal injection is no less problematic than all the other methods, and that there is no reason to continue using it. But capital punishment does not operate in the land of reason or logic; it operates in a perpetual state of secrecy and shame.

    In most cases, it is conducted late at night, behind closed doors, and as antiseptically as possible. Were it to be done otherwise, Americans would recoil in horror, as they did after the debacle in Oklahoma. Mr. Bucklew’s unusual case shows that death-penalty supporters can’t have it both ways. If they want the United States to remain a global outlier by killing its citizens, they must accept that there are no clean executions.

     

    – New York Times

  • Activist canvasses death penalty for corrupt public officers

    A human rights activist, Mr Solomon Dulong, on Thursday called for the provision of a law that would prescribe death penalty for corruption.

    Dulong made the call in Kaduna at the 12th Annual Lecture of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (NYCF).

    The activist said in a paper on `National Security for Nigeria’s Development’ that corruption remains one of Nigeria’s greatest problems and requires revolutionary measures to tackle.

    “I recommend that the National Assembly should amend our laws and provide death sentence for corruption so that it can serve as deterrent to others.”

    He noted that Nigeria, and particularly the North, was facing the problems of bad leadership corruption, institutional decay and absence of nationalistic values.

    According to him, the conduct of the nation’s leadership is counterproductive to national growth and will not in any way encourage nationalism and patriotism, which are key to reinforcing national security.

    Dulong further called on the Federal Government to initiate a “sincere war against poverty by creating the enabling environment for every youth to realise their potentials.”

    This, he said, was necessary to ending most of the security challenges in the country.

    He said the government should also engage communities in the war against insurgency, adding that the current military engagement should be appraised.

    The Chairman of the NYCF Board, Malam Ishaku Garba, called on people in the region to “stop the killings and engage in peace efforts” for the socioeconomic growth of the North.

    He also blamed the crises in the region to absence of leadership which had led to the neglect of the youths.

    “The North is developing but not growing”, he said, adding that the people needed to exploit the favourable land, weather, human and natural resource to transform their lives”.

    “Joblessness, poverty, corruption and embezzlement has become more devastating to our polity as northerners,” he added.

    Earlier, the chairman of the event, Sen. John Shagaya urged people in the region to promote peace for sustainable development.

  • Death penalty: Govt to honour court order stopping execution of condemned prisoners, says AGF

    The Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) yesterday said the Federal Government would respect the order of the ECOWAS Court stopping the execution of condemned prisoners nationwide.

    But he said the government would continue national dialogue and consultations on whether to abolish or retain death penalty.

    He also said in spite of the fact that the war against Boko Haram insurgents is challenging, it will be conducted with respect for human rights.

    He however, said there is no going back on the ban on same-sex marriage Act which was recently signed into law by the President.

    Adoke made the submissions in an address at a closed door session with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Madam Navi Pillay.

    Pillay’s visit was the first by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights since the office was created 20 years ago.

    Adoke said: “As the leader of government delegation to the Human Rights Council review of Nigeria under the Universal Periodic review mechanism in October last year, I observed that most of the Council Members expressed concerns on the death penalty in Nigeria and also the passage of the Same Sex Prohibition Law which has since been assented to by the President.

    “Just as I remarked during the review, the issue of death penalty is sensitive in Nigeria, especially taking into account the federal nature of the country. Government will take a position as to whether to remove it or not from our statute books after due consultations with the broad spectrum of Nigerian populace.

    “I must however observe that the ECOWAS Court of Justice has recently granted an Injunction restraining the Nigerian Government from carrying out the execution of condemned persons and directing the Government to continue to abide by its commitment to the Moratorium against the death penalty.

    “We shall respect this order by the Court, even as we continue with our national dialogue on the abolition or retention of the penalty.”

    On the security challenges facing the country, he said although the war against Boko Haram insurgency had been challenging, the Federal Government would wage it with respect for human rights.

    Adoke added: “To address the present security challenges in the country, government has set up many committees, the reports of which are being considered and implemented.

    “The Federal government has also adopted other constitutional measures which include the declaration of a State of Emergency over Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

    “While the war on terror currently been waged by our security agencies is undoubtedly a difficult and challenging one in view of the guerrilla tactics adopted by the insurgents, our forces have been under strict instructions to ensure that the war is waged with due regard for the human rights of residents of the affected areas, in line with our international and domestic obligations.

    “As a government, we are however aware that despite our best efforts, there had been some allegations of excesses by some security operatives engaged in the operations. As earlier indicated, we shall continue to deal with all reported cases strictly in accordance with our laws and the commitment of the present administration to the Rule of Law.”

    On Anti-Same Sex Marriage Act, the Minister said it was in line with the wish of 92 per cent of Nigerians.

    He said: “I wish to re-emphasise that our laws do not criminalise individual sexual orientation.

    “The focus of the Act is therefore discouragement of same-sex marriage which is a reflection of the overwhelming beliefs and cultural values of the Nigerian people as demonstrated by a 2013 Opinion Poll which showed that 92% of Nigerians reject same-sex marriage.”

    He clarified that the government had not been shielding law enforcement agents and security officers engaging in extra-judicial killings.

    He added: “The Nigerian Constitution does not permit extra-judicial killings and has zero tolerance for any form of cruelty or inhuman treatment.

    “While there have reports of extra-judicial killings, let me assure you that security officers that have been found culpable irrespective of their position are made to face the full weight of the law.”

    Pillay, who admitted that Nigeria has had some serious underlying problems, said: “I’m not here to come and criticize. I’m here to encourage them (the government) to do more to protect everyone human rights.”