“Unsigned Death Warrants Inflict Psychological Torture On Inmates, Experts Warn”

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s criminal justice system have urged governors to take decisive action on the execution of condemned prisoners rather than keeping them in what many describe as prolonged mental torture, according to IReporter Online.

A recent survey revealed that no governor has signed a death warrant since the return to civilian rule in 1999, a situation stakeholders blame on political caution, lack of professional executioners, and personal beliefs about the sanctity of life.

Some respondents in Ogun, Oyo, and Kwara told IReporter Online that the refusal to either carry out executions or commute sentences to life imprisonment leaves death row inmates in a state of psychological suffering.

Senior lawyer Musibau Adetunbi described the indefinite stay on death row as inhuman, calling for governors to either sign the warrants or officially convert them to life sentences.

Former Oyo State Attorney General Mutalubi Adebayo Ojo argued that, despite global trends away from capital punishment, Nigeria’s peculiar security situation makes the death penalty a necessary deterrent.

Criminologist Oludayo Tade added that some governors delay signing due to pending appeals and the possibility of wrongful execution.

The report further notes that the scarcity of hangmen, legal safeguards for appeals, and political fear of backlash contribute to the problem.

Some stakeholders, according to IReporter Online, also questioned why capital punishment is not applied to large-scale corruption cases, which they argue can cause societal harm equal to violent crime.

Others, such as Abideen Olaiya of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, believe the reluctance to sign death warrants shows a lack of preparedness for governance.

He insists that the failure to enforce death sentences emboldens violent offenders, urging Nigerians to pressure governors to fulfill their constitutional duties rather than campaign for the abolition of the death penalty.

”IREPORTER REPORTS”