Custodial centres are bursting at the seams nationwide. No fewer than 3,008 of the inmates are condemned criminals whose death warrants are yet to be signed by governors, years after many of them had exhausted their appeals.
Minister of the Interior Rauf Aregbesola believes executing condemned criminals is one of several ways to decongest the centres and save cost. But there are other arguments, writes ADEBISI ONANUGA.
Minister of the Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on July 23, raised the alarm on congestion of custodial centres. He noted that the country’s correctional facilities have a combined capacity of 57,278 inmates but currently hold 68,747, comprising 67,422 males and 1,325 females. 50,992 inmates, which is 74 % of the population, are awaiting trial. Only 17,755 inmates, who constitute 26 %, are convicts.
The minister, who spoke at the inauguration of the Osun State Command headquarters complex of the Nigeria Correctional Service(NCS) in Osogbo, noted further that there are 3,008 condemned criminals awaiting execution in the centres. They comprise 2,952 males and 56 females, both making up 4.8 %.
Why Nigeria has a high number of condemned convicts
There are several reasons for the relatively high number of convicts on death row.
Firstly, the death sentence is still a lawful method of punishment under the law. Secondly, governors are traditionally reluctant to sign warrants authorising custodial officials to execute condemned persons.
They are also generally unwilling to pardon condemned persons. Another, perhaps unusual, reason has to do with the hangman.
A competent source told The Nation that there is just 1 hangman in the country, who goes wherever his service is needed.
This explains why a condemned convict will stay on in prison for years without hope of obtaining state pardon and thereby swelling the overstretched prison population and facilities.
Between 2007 and 2017, there were only 7 executions.
The last execution took place in 2016, according to a report by Amnesty International (AI).
Source: thenationonlineng.com, Staff, August 24, 2021
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