Nigerian Governors are said to have shown cowardice by refusing to sign death warrants by courts against convicts since the advent of democracy, Babajide Otitoju, a popular television analyst stated.
Babajide Otitoju stated this after Justice Bassey Nkanang of Akwa Ibom High Court in Uyo, slammed a death sentence and life imprisonment on Uduak Akpan for murdering and raping Iniubong Umoren, the female job seeker.
Miss Umoren a Philosophy graduate of the University of Uyo awaited a mobilization letter from National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) before her untimely demise.
Read also
- Terrorists use ransoms to build houses in Niger Republic- Otitoju
- Terrorists more organized, FG Should take them seriously- Freed train Passenger
- Journalist identifies factors responsible for immoral conduct among underage kids
The award-winning journalist speaking on TVC NEWS under Journalists Hangout on Thursday, said “He admitted to killing her in front of the journalists, but then he turned around and claimed in court that he was acting in self-defense when he actually committed the crime.
‘‘If we have death sentence in our statue books, what stops our leaders from implementing it? This can deter others from being involved in similar crimes.
‘‘I remember some years ago, a woman in United States of America was sentenced to death. Pope and many other eminent persons mounted pressures that the President should not sign the warrant. But, former US President George Bush signed the death warrant despite pressures and Betty Lou Beets, a 62-year-old woman was executed by injection,’’ he narrated.
According to him, “We have a lot of people that have been sentenced to death and they are languishing in prisons. If you will not take their lives even after the Judge has sentenced them to death, where is the deterrence?”
‘‘They give the impression that they assume the judge will buy into whatever dumb thing that they tell him or her. It’s really a shame that these things keep happening; we need to do everything we can to make our nation more secure.
”And we need to stop kidnappings like this one that seem to pick their victims at random from all parts of the country, including the North, the South, and everywhere in between.
‘‘As a result of the proliferation of kidnapping as a profitable enterprise, innocent people are losing their lives. This is yet another reason why the government needs to devise a strategy that is effective in order to eradicate this pervasive and dangerous problem.”
Otitoju, therefore, urged the Governors to sign the death warrants to allow the convicts go and meet their maker.
