Elder statesmen and lawyers comment on whether or not treasury looters
should get capital punishment
Yes, capital punishment is necessary. But that should depend on the level and
degree of the offence. Some categories of corruption should carry the death
sentence, if that is the only thing that can serve as deterrence. This is because
selfishness has become extremely high. The level of selfishness is so high that
if we do not take a desperate measure, the country will not move anywhere.
The punitive measures in our existing laws are not sufficient deterrence. So,
capital punishment should be seriously considered and debated. It should be
widely debated.
High-degree corrupt practices should attract capital punishment. For instance,
somebody who steals a billion naira has done sufficient damage to Nigeria to
warrant capital punishment. The stolen money could have been used to build
hospitals, construct roads and purchase security equipment. Meanwhile, the
absence of these facilities might have caused the death of many people.
People die on bad roads across the country daily because money budgeted for
rehabilitation has been misappropriated. Such a misappropriation has a direct
impact on the lives of the people. The impact of corruption should determine
whether an individual found guilty should get the death penalty or not. –• •
Baralabe Musa (A former Governor of old Kaduna State)
I would not want to comment on whether corruption should attract the death
penalty because our problems are not the lack of laws in this country. One or
two sentences cannot explain how deep we are in this problem (of corruption).
It is a pity, but we pray. And we have to pray hard. I am involved in some
organisations that are working at seeing how we can begin a change in the
attitude of the people. We need to be more positive in nation-building.
What we are suffering is not as a result of lack of laws. We are suffering from
a situation where people know what is right but look the other way when they
are transgressing. My concern is how to get everybody to be committed to
attitudinal change. People should not be only concerned about their selfish
interests.
Nobody under 50 has met this country in good order. Those who were born
after 1966 have heard nothing edifying about this country. All the things they
have heard have been terrible. We need to get a critical mass to begin to key
into the efforts to change the attitude of the people.- • Philip Asiodu (An ex-
Minister of Petroleum and Economic Adviser to the Federal Government)
Personally, I am not in support of the death penalty. But I am in support of
very stringent sentences. The fact is that we have not even convicted anybody,
not to talk of considering the death penalty. Who are the people that have
been convicted already? People are being prosecuted and it could go on for
years.
What I think is important is to set a limit within which people who are accused
must get judgment. The appropriate punishment should be given to those
found guilty. It could be very disheartening when cases continue for several
months or years. Yet, another person steals a goat and gets a sentence in six
months.
It is clear that justice is not the same for everybody, and this is not
acceptable. There must be a time limit within which pending cases must be
treated. The same practice in election cases should apply to the prosecution of
those accused of corruption. Such people should be convicted quietly and
given the appropriate punishment. They could get 21 years in jail without an
option of fine. Then, the money they stole must be recovered. There should not
be an option of a fine because some of them might have killed other people.
The money they stole might have led to the death of many people. That is why
they deserve to be jailed without an option of a fine. I support stringent
punishment, but not the death penalty.- • Prof. Remi Sonaiya (Ex-presidential
candidate, KOWA Party)
I am probably the first notable individual in Nigeria that made the call. Making
corruption a capital punishment has always been my position. So, I don’t see it
as a new advocacy. But if we are to do that, we must ensure that there is no
miscarriage of justice. It is better for nine guilty individuals to go free than to
convict one person wrongly. This means we must revamp the criminal justice
administration.- • Yusuf Ali (A Senior Advocate of Nigeria)
I do not subscribe to it. Capital punishment has not deterred robbers and
kidnappers from committing heinous crimes. The emphasis should be on the
recovery of stolen assets arising from corruption, restitution and getting the
support of the international community to bar culprits and their family
members from entering foreign countries. – • Emeka Ngige (A Senior Advocate
of Nigeria)
Well, I don’t know how effective capital punishment would be. I think it is
more a matter of better education than using all kinds of punishments. If we
can get our people to understand what corruption actually does to them, there
could be a difference. That is where we should be concentrating our energies
on.
I would advocate that everybody who is arrested for corruption should be
named and made to suffer. There are certain things that existing laws expect
us to do to people who are corrupt. If we do them conscientiously, we do not
have to look for capital punishment. At the moment, there is too much
impunity because people think that they can get away with anything. – • Dr.
Christopher Kolade (A former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United
Kingdom)
I don’t think that corruption should attract the death penalty. I am one of the
advocates of the abolition of the death penalty in Nigeria. I have argued
against it on several occasions. So, it would not be appropriate for me to
support the idea of the death penalty as a tool for fighting against corruption
in the country.
Also, if you make it a capital offence, what happens when somebody adjudged
to be guilty is later discovered to be innocent? Then, the person would have
been killed. How would the individual’s life be restored? There was a particular
case where a man was executed only to be later discovered that he was
innocent. If we are in that kind of situation, what would we do?
I do not subscribe to that. I think we have enough laws that we can use to
address the issue instead of making corruption attract the death penalty. – •
Norrison Quakers (A Senior Advocate of Nigeria)

source: http://www.punchng.com/looters-public-funds-get-death-penalty/

cc lalastical mynd44 seun

hmmmmmm, is that a question or what? Those looters has murdered alot of Nigerians so death shiuld be the least for them. They deserve a painful one.

Yes,Including those in APC.

But of course!



Their actions lead to a lot of deaths too so its only fair!

funlord:


But of course!



Their actions lead to a lot of deaths too so its only fair!

true