TheCable

Twenty civil society organisations (CSOs) say executing condemned inmates is not the solution to decongesting prisons across the country.

The CSOs said this in response to a comment credited to Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior.

In July, Aregbesola asked governors to sign death warrants of condemned inmates to decongest prisons in the country.

But in a statement on Friday, the CSOs said Aregbesola’s position will affect Nigeria’s image negatively in terms of respect for human rights.

They also said the focus should be on the implementation of sections of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) act that provides for the handling of condemned inmates.

“While agreeing with the minister of interior on the need to bring closure to the cases involving 3,008 condemned criminals waiting for execution, we do not subscribe to the Minister’s call for the execution of these persons for many reasons,” they said.

“The focus should rather be on putting mechanisms in place for the implementation of the sections of the Nigerian Correctional Service act that provides for the handling of these condemned inmates and for management of congestion in custodial centers.

“Specifically, sub-section 8 of same section 12 empowers the state comptroller and superintendent in charge of a custodial centre to reject more intakes of inmates when a centre is filled to capacity.

“Regrettably, the undersigned members of our Forum see the request for execution of inmates by the Honorable Minister as a consequence of the failure of Nigeria to heed the call of the United Nations General Assembly for states to establish a moratorium on execution of death sentences

“The call for execution is actually a dent on the human rights records of the country and of course we know the consequences of that on the image of our dear country in the committee of nations.

“It is the position of our forum that the execution of inmates cannot be a solution to congestion, which obviously is not caused by the presence of such inmates in custody.”

The CSOs that signed the statements are;

• Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA)
• Gender Perspective and Social Development Centre (GPSDC)
• Prison Fellowship Nigeria
• Social Inclusion of the Voiceless and Neglected (SIVON)
• Headfort Foundation
• Justice and Peace Advocates Initiative
• COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peacebuilding
• Freedom for Life Initiative
• Centre For Human Rights Fact-Finding Advocacy Rehabilitation and Reintegration (CHFARR)
• Olive Justice Initiative
• Bridges and Hands Foundation
• Hosec Foundation
• Securing the Creative Goldmine in Youths Initiative
• Hope Behind Bars Africa
• Rehab Foundation
• Ideal Africa Foundation (IAF)
• NOPRIN Foundation
• Elixir Trust Foundation
• Human Rights Network and Jigawa Civil Society Resource Centre
• Sufabel Community Development Initiative (SCDI)