Commute Death Sentence To Life Imprisonment-Falana urges governors……says action is primitive and barbaric
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has called on state governors not to sign death warrants of the condemned criminals, describing execution of criminals as “primitive and barbaric”.
Speaking with newsmen in his Ilawe Ekiti residence, Falana noted that the act of executing criminals is wasteful intentional killing of Nigerians.
He therefore, advised that state governors should instead of signing the warrants, commute such to life imprisonment where the criminals would suffer and learn their lessons rather than being killed at once.
According to Falana, the worst that any government could do to any criminal for that matter was to send him to life jail and confiscate all property suspected to be proceeds of the nature of crime so committed.
Falana also faulted the justice administration system in Nigeria which he said lesser criminals were being sentenced to death whereas the greatest ones were allowed to walk the streets freely.
According to the human right activist, politicians who embezzle money earmarked for construction of roads, schools, hospitals, power supply, arms procurement are the “greatest killers”.
He lamented that many Nigerians died in road crashes owing to bad road conditions, lack of medical attention.
Falana also reiterated his appeal to the Federal Government not to execute solders found guilty of one offence or the other, such as alleged abscondment in the course of fighting insurgency in the North East.
He said, “I make bold to say there is no crime that is as heinous as diverting monies meant for the procurrement of arms for use by troops fighting enemies of the nation, or monies meant for construction of roads or building of hospitals.
This is because those who will die as a result of such deliberate acts of wickedness will be more than those killed by highway robbers and insurgents.”
Calling on the Federal Government to spread the tentacles of its war against corruption and other sharp practices into the activities of certain agencies usually regarded as ” money spinning, ” he said government needed to adopt new strategies regarding its whistle-blowing policy in such a manner that it would not be limited to exposing places where questionable monies are hidden alone, but also extended to exposing documents capable of leading to tracking of non-liquid cash kept in various financial institutions in Nigeria and abroad.
