SIR: There is a particularly annoying and worrying aspect of Nigeria’s justice system which ought to be brought under a national debate with a view to taking a strong stand which should then become the new law everyone must comply with.

For several years now, the issue of murder of innocent people is treated with obvious levity by the Nigerian state which represents a big injustice to those whose lives are randomly cut short. Apart from the long process conviction of murderers take, pronouncements of death sentence on those guilty is never given any prompt response, and by now, thousands are on death row.

Keeping those on death row for years without executing judgement is another burden on the state because the financial implications of keeping them is borne by the state. 

The reasons for delay in executing judgements according to a reliable source is that governors often refuse to sign the death warrants of convicted murderers and without such signature, the judgement can never be carried out.

Such delay to say the least is a complete betrayal by the state which ought to ensure that nobody dies such deaths in vain. Refusal of governors to sign death warrants has now resulted in so many people taking the law to their hands and killing other people almost every time since they are aware that even when caught, subjected to very long trials and are convicted, such judgement would not be effected by the state in the long run. This is the very reason why there is an increasing wave of murders in Nigeria. 

Since delay in executing judgments is due to the lackadaisical attitudes of Nigeria’s governors, it is high time the National Assembly came up with necessary legislation to make it mandatory for convicted murder suspects to be executed within the same week of sentence.

It is only when that happens everyone would be reminded about the sanctity of life and the need to avoid taking other people’s lives by all means. It is never a question of cruelty that whoever kills must also be killed because it is by so doing, the state would be taking up the fight on behalf of those gruesomely murdered to ensure they did not die in vain.

It is an important duty the state owes those who are no longer in a position to defend themselves.
Jide Oyewusi is Coordinator of Ethics Watch International Nigeria.