By Olayinka Latona
THE Comunita d Sant’Egidio, Nigeria and the European has advocated the abolition of death penalty, lynching and extra-judicial killings in the country, arguing that capital punishment violates the right to life which happens to be the most basic of all human rights.
The group made the call through its country represen-tative, Ezike Henry Prince at the St. Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba, Lagos, during a campaign highlighting the dignity of the human life.
Ezike explained that the only deterrence to crime is increasing the possibility of apprehending offenders and not in the severity of the pun-ishment, noting that violent crimes especially armed robbery have remained on the increase since the introduction of death sentence for the offence in early 1970s.
He said: “The death penalty is not a tool to deter crime and violence, because perpetrators are often people who deal with death more than life. They are not scared by any death. On the contrary capital punish-ment may encourage acts of violence against law enforce-ment agents even inside prisons, because no hope is in sight and no rehabilitation permitted”.
He therefore appealed to the Federal Government to pro-nounce an official moratorium on death sentences and executions.
Also speaking on behalf of the organisation, Jan De Volder stated that the call for the abolition of death penalty, lynching and extra-judicial killings is not for evil doers to be left unpunished, but that the justice system must take a process that does not violate human rights.
He maintained that death penalty is a violation of human rights and does not serve as deterrent but harden criminals.
A representative of the Human Rights Law Service, Barrister Collins Okeke, maintained that it is in the interest of all to abolish death penalty, arguing that some innocent Nigerians had been wrongly accused and punish-ed with death penalty.
Okeke called on the Niger-ian government to adequately fund the Nigeria Police and addressing the problem of corruption in the force, instead of encouraging bloodletting through death penalty.
Vanguard