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Tag: Death Penalty

  • Reps pass bills to review death penalty, LG reforms, citizenship laws

    Reps pass bills to review death penalty, LG reforms, citizenship laws

    The House of Representatives passed for second reading bills seeking to alter the Constitution to review death penalty, ensure Local Government reforms and review indigene and citizen status in the country.

    The bills were sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Rep. Benjamin Kalu.

    The bills which were presented by the Majority Leader, Rep. Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo) include a bill for an Act to alter the Constitution to review the penalties for certain capital offences in aignment with relevant international best practices and for related matters.

    He also presented a bill for an Act to alter the Constitution to review the framework for Local Government Administration.

    The bill seeks to establish a robust legal regime, strengthen administrative efficiency, and to promote transparency, accountability.

    The bill also seeks to deepen democratic practices at the local government level and for related matters.

    Ihonvbere also presented a bill for an Act to alter the Constitution to guarantee indigene status to persons by reason of birth or continued residence for a period of not less than 10 years or by reason of marriage and for related matters.

    The majority leader also presented a bill for an Act to alter the Constitution to include citizenship by investment as one of the classes of citizenship in Nigeria.

    To provide for the acquisition of Nigerian citizenship by qualified foreign investors who meet specified investment thresholds and for related matters.

    Other bills presented by Ihonvbere include for an Act to alter the Constitution to provide for the inclusion of Tourism and Tourism related matters on the Concurrent Legislative List and for related matters.

  • Convicts bag death sentence, jail term for the killing of 7 DSS officers

    Convicts bag death sentence, jail term for the killing of 7 DSS officers

    Justice Hakeem Oshodi, on Tuesday sentenced one Clement Ododomu to death by hanging and one Tiwei Monday to 16 years in a correctional centre.

    Oshodi delivered the judgement after careful considerations of facts before the court and the demeanor of the convicts, which he termed as ‘unremorseful’.

    The judge said that the allocutus by the Defence Counsel, Mr Olusegun Akande, who had on Oct. 11, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, was replied by the Director, Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr Babajide Martins.

    The convicts, who are vandals, were arraigned for killing seven officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) in the Ikorodu area of the state.

    Oshodi said that Martins had told the court that the offences by the Defendants were grave and that the court should apply the maximum sentences available.

    The judge said: “The court has considered the allocutus of the defence counsel, but the position of the law is binding to us all. As noted, the first defendant was convicted on counts one, five, seven, nine and ten, while the second defendant was convicted on counts one and ten.

    “This is as contained in the information filed dated January 13, 2017. The provisions of this sections of the law are as follows:

    “Count I, the count convicted the first and second defendants on the count –

    “This count is brought contrary to Section 233 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015, liable to a conviction of 14 years.

    “On counts five and seven, the first defendant on these counts, which is contrary to Section 233 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015, provides that any one who commits murder shall be sentenced to death.”

    According to Oshodi, on count nine, the first defendant is brought under Section 298 (3) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015, hence, liable to not less than 14 years but not more than 20 years imprisonment.

    Also, on count 10, both the first and second defendants were convicted under Section 410 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015 and is liable to two years imprisonment.

    According to him, the claim of the defence that the defendants were in Lagos for the funeral of their grandmother was a ruse.

    Oshodi held that the defence failed to provide essential witnesses to corroborate the claim.

    He, however, held that prosecution was not able to prove that the second defendant was guilty of murder.

    Oshodi said that evidence before the court showed that it was one Agbala and the first defendant who killed the operatives.

    He held that the prosecution was able to prove that the two defendants participated in the ambush of the operatives.

    He, therefore, discharged and acquitted the convicts on counts two, three, four, six and eight because the prosecution was unable to prove the allegations against them.

    Justice Oshodi said: “The court has observed the demeanor of the defendants and came to the conclusion that they felt no remorse with regards to the allegations they were facing.

    “They informed the court that they do not understand English language, whereas, in the recording, they both were conversing in English.

    “The first and second defendants are hereby sentenced to imprisonment for 14 years for count 10 and the first and second defendants are hereby sentenced to imprisonment for two years for count 9.

    “The first defendant is hereby sentenced to imprisonment for 20 years. The terms of imprisonment for both defendants will run concurrently.

    “For count five and seven, which the court has found the first defendant guilty, the sentence of the court upon you is that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead and may God have mercy on your soul,” he said

    The Lagos State Government had submitted that DSS received a distress call from an editor of Sun newspaper (name withheld) on Sept. 14, 2015, about the kidnap of his wife at their residence.

    It was said that the state command of the DSS consequently dispatched a nine-man team to carry out surveillance to ascertain the location of the kidnappers who were negotiating for a ransom.

    Prosecution added that it was reported that in the evening of that day, one of the DSS team members, Mr Martins Ajayi, sent a distress text message to the command headquarters to the effect that the team had been ambushed by vandals and their weapons seized.

    According to prosecution, the convicts committed the offences on Sept. 14, 2015, in Ishawo Creek, Ikorodu, Lagos.

    The convicts were arraigned on a 10-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit murder, murder and illegal possession of firearms, contrary to Section 223 and 298 (3) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

  • Matawalle endorses death penalty for terrorists, bandits

    Zamfara state Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle  has endorsed death penalty for those convicted for banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and cultism in the State.

    The was  announced by the governor  shortly  after signing into law, a bill passed by the Zamfara State House of Assembly prohibiting and punishing terrorists, cattle rustling, cultism, kidnapping and other incidental offences.

    Matawalle sounded a note of warning  to anyone found guilty of aiding or abetting the crimes mentioned saying it’s now  liable to life imprisonment, twenty years imprisonment or ten years imprisonment  depending on the weight without any option of fine.

    He   insisted that his administration was much more ready to battle the criminal elements in the State within the ambit of the law to secure the State and restore peace, especially in communities considered as bandits’ hub

    “The new law provides that any person found guilty of banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling, Cultism or being an informant to the bandits is liable to death penalty.

    “Under the law, anyone found guilty of aiding and or abetting the crimes mentioned is liable to life imprisonment, twenty years imprisonment or ten years imprisonment without option of fine.

    “The most fundamental focus of governance anywhere in the world is security,” he stated.

    Governor Matawalle noted that the establishment of community protection guards was not different from the Civilian Joint Task Force, JTF, in Borno State and Amotekun in the South-West region

    While commending the State House of Assembly for keeping up with their constitutional responsibility of making laws to secure the State, he also lauded the Federal Government for its consistent support to Zamfara State.

    Earlier, the Speaker Zamfara State House of Assembly, Hon. Nasiru Magarya said that the law will serve as a legal instrument for prosecuting banditry-related offenders in the State.

    Also commenting, the Chairman, House Committee on banditry and related offences, Hon. Abdullahi Shinkafi warned those abetting banditry and kidnapping to desist from such.

    Recall that Zamfara state has suffered many attacks by bandits and terrorists  in recent times and the governor has called on the people to defend themselves.

  • Jigawa approves death penalty ‘with no option’ for child rapists

    Jigawa approves death penalty ‘with no option’ for child rapists

    The Jigawa State Government has enacted the child protection law that prescribes the death penalty for rapists without the option of life imprisonment.

    Dr. Musa Adamu, the Commissioner for Justice and the Attorney General, disclosed this on Wednesday during an end-of-the-year press briefing in Dutse, the state capital of Jigawa.

    According to him, anyone convicted of raping a child below the age of ten shall be sentenced to death with no other option.

    “Earlier this year the Jigawa state Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar has signed the Violence Against Prohibition Bill which prescribed the death penalty for rapists but with the option of life imprisonment. But recently the government has also signed the child protection law which prescribed the death penalty for anyone that raped a child below the age of 10,” Dr. Musa said.

    He explained that the ministry had received “a total number of 196 case diaries while 178 pieces of legal advice were prepared in respect of the case diaries, received.

    Out of the total number of the case diaries, 90 were rape cases; 27 culpable homicides; sodomy has 31; kidnapping and abduction have a total number of 18 cases; incest two; two 2 acts of gross indecency; 20 armed robberies while road traffic offenses have two cases.”

    “The ministry has prosecuted and defended a total number of 25 appeals before Court of Appeal, Kano Division, and has also completed the prosecution of 83 criminal trials before eight High Courts at Birnin Kudu, Dutse, Gumel Hadejia, Kazaure and Ringim. 34 convictions and Forty-Nine 49 defendants were discharged and acquitted,” he added.

    The commissioner also lamented the delay in criminal litigation as one of the major challenges of the ministry, which he said is not peculiar to Jigawa State.

    Adamu noted that the problems associated with the delay in criminal litigation can be reduced by the proper use of technology.

  • Kazakhstan abolishes death penalty

    Kazakhstan abolished the death penalty, making permanent a nearly two-decade freeze on capital punishment in the authoritarian Central Asian country, a notice on the presidential website said Saturday.

    The notice said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had signed off on parliamentary ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — a document that commits signatories to the abolition of capital punishment.

    Executions were paused in Kazakhstan from 2003 but courts continued to sentence convicts to death in exceptional circumstances, including for crimes deemed acts of terror.

    Ruslan Kulekbayev, a lone gunman who killed eight policemen and two civilians during a rampage in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty in 2016, was among the convicts set to be executed if the moratorium were lifted.

    Kulekbayev will now serve a life sentence in jail instead.

  • U.S. executes first Black man since resumption of federal death penalty

    U.S. executes first Black man since resumption of federal death penalty

    The U.S. government has executed the seventh inmate and first Black man since the resumption of the federal death penalty, a media witness on the scene said.

    Inmate Christopher Vialva, 40, was executed Thursday afternoon for killing two youth ministers in the state of Texas in 2000.

    Time of death was 6:42 p.m. 10:42 p.m. GMT, WHTI correspondent Alia Blackburn said in a tweet.

    Vialva’s lawyer claimed that racial bias had a role in his sentence.

    Hours before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Vialva’s request for a stay.
    In July 2019, U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to adopt a proposed Addendum to the Federal Execution Protocol.

    That cleared the way for the U.S. government to resume capital punishment after a nearly two decade lapse, and bringing justice to victims of the most horrific crimes.

    The attorney general further directed the Acting Director of the BOP, Hugh Hurwitz, to schedule the executions of five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in the society – children and the elderly.

    “Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President.

    “Under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding.

    “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” Barr said.

  • Buhari’s aide under fire for supporting death penalty for blasphemy

    Buhari’s aide under fire for supporting death penalty for blasphemy

    The new media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad was on Wednesday attacked by netizens over his support of death penalty as a punishment for blasphemy.

    The outrage was sparked in the wake of the death penalty handed out to a Kano singer, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu who was found guilty of committing blasphemy for a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020.

    Ahmad had in the tweet shared in 2015, supported the death penalty for blasphemy which he described as his “belief”.

    The tweet read;

    The tweet has led to an outcry from Nigerians who opined that Ahmad’s belief is similar to that of Boko Haram insurgents who mete out same treatment to those they accuse of blasphemy.

    Here are some tweets below;

  • Man sentenced to death for beating his father to death

    Man sentenced to death for beating his father to death

    An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Monday sentenced a technician, Rasak Abiona, to death for beating his 62-year-old father to death with an iron rod during a dispute over a property in Lagos.

    According to reports Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo delivered the judgment in a virtual hearing.

    Justice Taiwo held that though the prosecution had presented circumstantial evidence against the middle-aged defendant during the trial, the state proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

    She noted that the technician’s confessional statements to the police implicated him and that during the trial, the defendant did not present witnesses in court to back his claim that his father died after a fall.

    Justice Taiwo sentenced Rasak after finding him guilty of a charge of murder contrary to Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2011.

    She held: “This is a very unfortunate and sad case where a son kills his father.

    “There is no doubt that by hitting the deceased with an iron rod on the head, the defendant intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

    “The defendant could have easily overpowered his father, a 62-year-old man, without hitting him on the head with an iron rod.

    “This case is a clear indication of what anger and impatience can do in a man’s life.

    “The court does not have a discretion to give a lesser punishment in a case of murder in view of Section 223 of the Criminal Law 2011.

    “I hereby sentence the defendant to death for killing his father, Sunday Abiona.

    “This is the sentence of the court.”

    Earlier, before the sentence was delivered, the defence counsel, Obinna Mbagho, in his plea for mercy, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, noting that Rasak was a first-time offender who had shown remorse.

    “He has been in prison since 2013 and ever since his incarceration, his children have been scattered,” Mbagho said.

    Opposing the plea for mercy, the prosecutor for the state, Olakunle Ligali, requested for the maximum penalty for the crime.

    Ligali said: “Under the Criminal Law of Lagos, when the crime has the ultimate penalty of death, the court has no discretion to mitigate the sentence.

  • Death penalty: Maryam Sanda appeals against court judgment

    Following her conviction by an FCT High Court over the alleged killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, Maryam Sanda has approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, asking the court to set aside the verdict and acquit her.
    Sanda, who was sentenced to death by hanging by Justice Yusuf Halilu on Jan. 27, said the trial judge “was tainted by bias and prejudices.”
    According to her, this led to the denial of her right to fair hearing and her consequent conviction based on circumstantial evidence despite the reasonable doubt that was created by evidence of witnesses, lack of confessional statement, absence of murder weapon, lack of corroboration of evidence by two or more witnesses and lack of autopsy report to determine the true cause of her husband’s death.
    In a notice of appeal predicated on 20 grounds and filed by her legal team composed of Rickey Tarfa, SAN, Olusegun Jolaawo, SAN, Regina Okotie-Eboh and Beatrice Tarfa, the applicant said the judgment of the trial court was completely “a miscarriage of justice.”
    She pointed to the failure of the trial judge to rule, one way or the other, on her preliminary objection, challenging the charge preferred against her and the jurisdiction of the court as evidence of bias and a denial of her right to fair hearing as constitutionally guaranteed.
    In her application, she said: “The honourable trial judge erred in law when having taken arguments on the appellant’s preliminary objection to the validity of the charge on the 19th of March, 2018 failed to rule on it at the conclusion of trial or at any other time.
    “The trial judge exhibited bias against the defendant in not ruling one way or the other on the said motion challenging his jurisdiction to entertain the charge and therefore fundamentally breached the right to fair hearing of the defendant.”
    In ground II, the appellant contended that the trial judge erred and misdirected himself by usurping the role of the police when he assumed the duty of an Investigating Police Officer (IPO) as contained in Page 76 of his judgment.
    It was submitted that “the circumstantial evidence which the trial court relied upon in its application of the last seen doctrine does not lead to the conclusion that the defendant is responsible for the death of the deceased.”
    Consequently, Sanda prayed the Court of Appeal to allow her appeal, set aside her conviction and sentence imposed by Justice Halilu and acquit her
    No date has been fixed for hearing in the matter.
  • Why we can’t initiate death penalty bill for treasury looters – Senate

    Why we can’t initiate death penalty bill for treasury looters – Senate

    The Senate has explained why it is impossible to initiate a bill that prescribes death penalty for looters.

    This is coming after some Nigerians and groups called for a bill that prescribes death penalty for treasury looters instead of the lawmakers devoting time to social media and hate speech bills.

    The spokesperson for the Senate, Godiya Akwashiki, explained that death penalty for looters is impossible because the Senate President cannot direct any senator to produce or sponsor a bill.

    Akwashiki, however, challenged the executive arm of government, groups or individuals to initiate bills that prescribe the death penalty for treasury looters and see if the upper chamber would not push them through.

    “It is not possible for the Senate President to direct any senator to go and produce a particular type of bill. All of us are elected to represent our constituency from various parts of the country,” he told Punch.

    The Senate spokesperson also said different punishments were already prescribed against corruption in the acts that established the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, as well as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

    “We have the ICPC Act and the EFCC Act and there are punishments there for offenders. I want to believe we are going gradually. However, any bill that would criminalise looting is a good proposal that the Senate could consider,” he said.

    He also described as untrue insinuations that senators, particularly former governors and ministers in the red chamber, would reject such legislation in order to protect themselves.

    He said, “We started a serious fight against corruption a few years ago when President Muhammadu Buhari got into office.

    “The issue of a bill against corruption and looters in the Senate is a constitutional right of every senator, the executive arm of government, groups or private individuals.

    “Anybody in the country is free to propose a bill through any senator. If you have such a proposal, get in touch with your senator, sit down with him and convince him why you want that type of law to be enacted.”

    Stressing that the red chamber would support any bill that criminalises corruption, Akwashiki said, “This country belongs to all of us. Every person in this country has the right to present their opinion in terms of enacting an Act for the benefit of the people.

    “When the Senate discovers there are many people requesting a particular bill, one day, one senator will just wake up and initiate a proposal and present it before his colleagues.”

    He also said not all former governors or former ministers in the red chamber were corrupt.

    He said, “We have 109 senators. How many are former governors or ministers?

    “Are you saying we could get 60 senators who are either former governors or ministers?

    “Senate is a place where everybody is free to express their opinions, according to the wishes of the people who elected them.

    “The Senate chamber is higher than any former governor or minister.”

    Meanwhile, the Senate spokesperson said the red chamber had yet to discuss the issue of the death penalty in the hate speech bill because the proposal still remained the personal property of the sponsor until it passed second reading.

    He said, “The issue of expunging the death penalty from the hate speech bill is not the decision of the Senate yet. There is a process of enacting an Act. The bill will pass first, second and third readings.

    “The hate speech bill has just been mentioned for the first time. It has not come up for a second reading. It is when it is introduced for the second time that the senators will for the first time voice out for or against the bill.

    “For now, the sponsor has said he will expunge the clause that prescribes the death penalty for hate speech; that is his own personal opinion.

    “I have said it times without number that the hate speech bill is a private member bill. When we get to its second reading, that is when Nigerians will know the position of the Senate on the bill. If the bill does not pass second reading, that will be its end.

    “The senators may even decide to remove other clauses apart from the death penalty provision.”