Lagos , Nigeria - For 17 years, Thankgod Ebohs ,
an inmate of Oko Prison, lived under the threat
of facing the gallows. Each day, he feared that
the authorities would come for him.
Even though the state outlawed capital
punishment in 2006 , on June 25 , 2013 , Ebohs
blood ran icy cold as he and four other inmates
were haulted before a hangman at the Oko
prison gallows.
The father of three watched with horror as the
hangman took turns on the condemned
prisoners. But when it came to the turn of the
furniture maker, the prison officials discovered
that his death sentence was supposed to be
carried out by gunshot instead - so his wait on
death row was extended thanks to this
bureaucratic error.
But even though Thankgod Ebohs escaped the
gallows by the skin of his teeth , the trauma of
seeing four colleagues hung profoundly affected
him.
One of his sons , who asked for anonymity for
fear of being prevented from seeing his father
again, told Al Jazeera, "My father is still in a
state of shock, when I saw him last September
he was still weeping ."
For now Ebohs is still alive , but his family does
not know how long it will be before he faces
the firing squad.
Ebohs case has helped catapult the plight of
death row inmates across Nigerian prisons into
the limelight. Many of these inmates have been
on the death row for years, enduring the
psychological trauma of the daily wait for
execution .
A 2008 report by Amnesty International on
death row inmates in Nigeria notes that the
country has about 1000 condemned prisoners.
Of those, 130 have been on death row for more
than 10 years, while some have been there for
more than 30 years.
" We note that the average period spent on
death row by prison inmates is between 10 and
15 years," the report says. It also says that
prisoners who have been on death row for
more than ten years have " been diagnosed for
various ailments , common among which is
mental disorder " .
Justine Ljeomah , the executive director of the
Human Rights Social Development and
Environmental Foundation, describes the
situation as unacceptable . " Keeping a death row
inmate awaiting the hangman is a psychological
torture on its own ," says Ljeomah .
Use of torture
But what is more worrying for Ljeomah is that
more than half of all the death row inmates in
Nigeria were sentenced to death on the basis of
confession statements - some of which may
have stemmed from torture.
In the same report , Amnesty International
quotes the National Human Rights Commission
on the use of torture: " The Nigerian Police and
other law enforcement agencies commit the act
of torture with impunity. "
There are at least 40 juvenile offenders on
death row. Their ages at the time of crime
ranged from 13 to 17 .
- Francis Njoku , legal practicioner
Apart from the fact that the use of torture on
suspects is against international convention,
Nigerian law also prohibits it . Section 34 (1 ) (a )
of the 1999 constitution ordains that " no
person shall be subjected to torture or to
inhuman or degrading treatment " .
" Torture of suspects by the police is a crude
and primitive form of investigating crime which
is also a brazen infraction on the constitution ,"
Francis Njoku, a legal practitioner told Al
Jazeera.
Nigeria is perhaps one of the few countries that
allow juvenile offenders to be sentenced to
death. According to the Amnesty International
report , "There are at least 40 juvenile offenders
on death row. Their ages at the time of crime
ranged from 13 to 17 ."
Perhaps it was because of the problems
plaguing the criminal justice system that
swayed the federal government under the
administration of former president Olusegun
Obasanjo to declare a moratorium on all
executions in 2006 . Since then there were no
executions until June 16th when President
Goodluck Jonathan urged state governors to
sign death warrants for death row prisoners . A
week later prison authorities in Edo State sent
four condemned criminals to the gallows.
Ope Fatinikun, a public relations officer with
the Nigerian Prison Authorities, told Al Jazeera
that the prisons were mandated to carry out
the death sentence of inmates once they have
recieved their death warrants. " Once we have
been served the signed death warrants by the
governors we have to carry out the death
sentence" , he said , adding that the reluctance
of the governors to sign the death warrants was
the reason why there were so many prisoners
on death row.
Under Nigerian law , crimes such as armed
robbery , murder , treason, conspiracy to treason
or instigating invasion of Nigeria are subject to
the death penalty. In some states in the
northern part of the country which have a
regime of Sharia as the penal system , offences
such as adultery , rape , sodomy, incest and
witchcraft also are subject to death sentences .
Chino Obiagwu , a national coordinator for the
Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP )
told Al Jazeera that he wanted the commutation
of all death sentences to life imprisonment,
noting that studies " fail to show that the death
penalty deters crimes ".
In the same vein , Kemi Okenyodo , the executive
director of the CLEEN Foundation pointed out
to Al Jazeera that allowing prisoners to stay on
death row for long was not right . "Their
sentences should be committed to life
imprisonment. This is a more definite sentence,
than awaiting execution and yet not knowing
when it will occur. "
Mausi Segun of Human Rights Watch, however ,
calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
" Human Rights Watch opposes the death
penalty in all circumstances as an inherently
irreversible and inhuman punishment ," she
said.
http://m.aljazeera.com/story/2013112094420106741