Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has asked
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State to commute the death penalty passed on
death row inmates in the state to life imprisonment instead of executing them.
Those on death row upon the judgment of the court of Lagos
State included the General-Overseer of the Christian Praying Assembly,
Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, a.k.a Rev. King.
Falana argued in his letter dated April 19, 2017, and
addressed to Governor Ambode that the planned execution of death row inmates in
the state would violate a subsisting judgment delivered in 2012 by the High
Court of Lagos State which ruled that it was illegal and unconstitutional to
execute the condemned inmates.
He reminded the governor that the judgment of the court of
the state had held that to hang or subject the death row inmates to firing
squad would lead to the violation of their fundamental right to freedom from
torture guaranteed by the Constitution.
The judgment was said to have been delivered by Justice
Mufutau Olokooba of the Lagos State High Court on June 29, 2012.
The Lagos lawyer advised the state government to explore the
only available option of commuting the death penalty passed on the inmates to
life imprisonment.
Falana stated, “On the basis of the valid and subsisting
judgment of the Lagos High Court on the illegality of the execution of the
death penalty in Lagos State we urge Your Excellency not to sign a death
warrant authorising the killing of any condemned prisoner either by hanging,
firing squad or any other means whatsoever.
“In the circumstance, Your Excellency may wish to commute
the death sentences of all condemned prisoners in Lagos State to life
imprisonment forthwith.”
The Attorney-General of the state, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, was
said to have stated at a press conference on Tuesday that unlike previous
administrations, Governor Ambode would sign the necessary documents to execute
those on death row in the state.
Kazeem reportedly said the development was at the
instruction of Governor Ambode and that the state had begun reviewing the
matter after prison officials complained of the highhandedness of some death
row inmates who felt that they had certain rights which excluded them from
being executed.
But Falana stated that the planned execution would negate
the subsisting the court judgment.
Falana stated, “Although many persons have been convicted
for armed robbery and murder and sentenced to death by the Lagos State High
Court since 1999 your predecessors did not sign death warrants for the execution
of any person on death row.
“Accordingly, all the convicts on death row have had the
death sentences imposed on them commuted to life imprisonment.
“It is pertinent to draw the attention of Your Excellency to
the case of Ajulu & Ors. V. Attorney-General of Lagos State (unreported)
Suit No: ID/76M/2008 of 29th June 2012 wherein the Lagos State
High Court held that while a person who commits murder may be sentenced to
death it is illegal and unconstitutional to execute such death sentence by
hanging or firing squad as it will lead to the violation of his
fundamental right to freedom from torture guaranteed by the Constitution.
According to the learned trial judge, Olokooba J:
“…death by hanging and firing squad amounts to a violation
of the condemned’s right to dignity of the human person and amount to inhuman
and degrading treatment is consequently unconstitutional being violative of
section 34(1)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
Section 367 of the Criminal Procedure Law of Lagos State and any other Law
which provides for hanging and condemned by the neck till he be dead are
accordingly declared unconstitutional. Section 1(3) of the Robbery and Firearms
(Special Provisions) Act in so far as it seeks to be implemented by the
Respondent it is also declared unconstitutional and void.”
By Ade Adesomoju, Abuja
