THE Lagos State government yesterday joined calls for a rethink of death penalty in the nation’s constitution, urging rather the setting up of an investigative committee on death sentence to determine whether or not it has served as appropriate deterrent to criminals.
The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, disclosed the state’s position at the monthly ministerial briefing in Alausa, Ikeja, stating that the committee should also consider whether there was an increase or otherwise in cases of armed robbery incidents between the lag period in the execution of convicts on death row.
According to him, the result of the investigation will help Nigerians take a stance on the issue. And reacting to governors’ hesitation to sign the execution warrant and the President’s advice to do so, Ipaye noted that death penalty remains part of the country’s laws.
However, he argued that governors have the right to discretion to either grant amnesty to convicts or allow them to explore their constitutional rights of appeal.
Meanwhile, the commissioner debunked reports that under-aged persons were being kept in prisons across Lagos for 390 days on the orders of a state Magistrate’s Court.
According to him, investigations revealed that the report was misleading because the 162 persons arraigned at the Magistrate’s Court were above 18 years.
More so, he said, both the magistrate and the registrar took further steps of requiring the prosecutor and the defendants to confirm their ages individually. The governor, he added, would continue to ensure that no under-aged defendant was incarcerated in adult prisons.
To this end, the state has dedicated a hot line and e-mail to enable magistrates lodge complaints to his office in any case of improper or inappropriate conduct on the part of any prosecution counsel or police officer, he noted.
On the move to decongest the prisons, Ipaye said the state would sustain its regular visits to prisons for the purpose of releasing awaiting trial inmates and those not supposed to be there in the first place.
However, he lamented that their efforts were being hampered by the lack of case files or legal advice for a great majority of the inmates.
Nevertheless, he said, the state has created a legal advisory unit in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), which had improved the issuance of legal advice for 757 case files.

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