Edo House moves against death penalty


Ben-Ose Ogbemudia • Thursday, Aug 7, 2008

Former Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly and member 
representing Esan South and Esan North at the House of 
Representatives, Abuja, Hon. Friday ltulah has pledged to represent 
the capital punishment amendment bill on the floor of the House.

He said this is because the bill has the potential of reforming armed 
robbers and other violent criminals in the nation since the objective 
is to bring the nation at par with other countries of the world.

According to ltulah, the bill suffered defeat after its first reading 
on the floor of the House because members were ignorant of its 
advantages in that the content of the bill reflects global trend.

He said the bill seeks amongst others to amend the robbery and 
firearms law with a view to abolishing the death penalty and 
neutralising the extrajudicial killings of suspects in custody.

The objective, he added, is to change the killing of armed robbery 
suspects via the death sentence to life imprisonment or a sentence to 
a prison term of 20 years.

The former speaker who said, as it is presently, the law is defective 
and archaic said the situation where suspects are paraded in the 
media and are never charged to court is horrendous. This, he said, 
amounts to denial of the freedom to fair hearing. The constitution, 
he says, guarantees that no one can take life except in the execution 
of a court order, so it is illegal for anyone to be killing armed 
robbery suspects at will.

The lawmaker who also said that there are mistakes being made and 
because of the finality of the death penalty, said “you have no way 
to retrieve the life that has been lost and two wrongs cannot make a 
right,” hence the mere decision to kill one because he/she killed the 
other is barbaric.

“An armed robbery suspect today can be useful to the society 
tomorrow, if allowed to serve a prison term where he can be reformed 
and rehabilitated to be a better citizen,” declared the lawmaker, 
adding that since smaller countries like Ghana, Sudan, Mozambique and 
even Rwanda have abolished the death penalty in Africa, Nigeria must 
follow suit.

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