FG directs governors to execute death row inmates

In line with the directive of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), directing state governors to sign the death warrants of death row inmates, some states including Edo have allegedly concluded plans to execute some inmates on death row at the Benin Prisons.

Inmates at the Benin Prisons last week were reportedly agitated seeing the gallows being renovated and prepared for the executions.

It is on record that after a 10-year moratorium on execution of convicts for capital offences, the then Edo State Governor, Mr. Adam Oshiomhole in line with a similar directive of the Jonathan administration in 2012 signed the death warrants of six convicts who were immediately executed at the Benin Prisons.

The 2012 Benin executions drew the ire of the international community, which had commended the Obasanjo administration for unofficially observing a moratorium on death penalty.

Last Friday in a swift reaction, the Nigerian Anti-Death Penalty Group, a coalition of over 50 Civil society groups, lawyers, journalists and human rights activists working towards the improvement of the criminal justice system and in the long run the abolition of death penalty in Nigeria rose from an emergency meeting in Lagos condemning in strong terms, the planned executions.