……Why All These Senseless Killings and Death Must Stop! The debate whether the Death Penalty should be abolished or not is as old as the Nigeria’s Independence from her Colonial Master, the United Kingdom. This debate became very hot when the Lagos State Government proclaimed to the world that she would be sending the caught kidnappers whose victims died to the gallows as punishment for their bad deed. This debate was well captured by the weekly pull out of the THIS DAY Newspaper popularly known as the LAWYER of 14.2.2017. The debate was titled: WILL DEATH PENALY DETER KIDNAPPERS? The intention here is not to sit again as a panel on the debate, but to examine the incessant clashes between the herdsmen and farmers that have in recent time led to the unfortunate death of disturbing numbers of people in Benue and Plateau States. By extension we shall equally look into the death of so many people as well as the destruction of vehicles involved in the unfortunate petrol tankers explosion in Lagos State. The rates at which people are being mercilessly killed this time around are becoming too disturbing and disheartening. For how long this will last still remains a question yet to be answered. Why will people continue to resort to killing one another and despite all these senseless killing their problems remain unresolved? Benue State yesterday, Plateau State today and who can say which state is next? Some Politicians have been said to be fuelling this unfortunate killing of people, if all people are killed, who are they going to rule or can they rule on the dead people? The politicians and others who are fuelling these senseless killings if they have their paradise here on the earth, they will surely reside in the hell in the hereafter. Enough is enough of these wicked killings. Another question is that if those who are being employed or recruited to perpetrate all the evil work are so senseless to tell their sponsors to go and recruit their own children to perform the devilish and wicked job, then their future is bound to be bleak as the ghosts of those they killed mercilessly will continue to give them nightmare and sleepless nights. They have killed the sleep and they will no longer be able to sleep. This again brings us to the issue of the Death Penalty. If the Death Penalty is done away with, are those clamouring for its abolition, saying those who committed this high level of atrocities, if apprehended and tried in the law court must not be made to face the Death Penalty they have meted on their fellow human beings? I believe it is the inability of the government to do what is right both in the present and the past that is bringing this mess to us as a nation. The argument of those calling for the abolition of the Death Penalty has been that “death sentence or any severe punishment does not reduce crime. It is only the possibility of apprehending the criminals and putting them to trial that will discourage potential criminals” and that the Death Penalty “ only affects the poor and uneducated .If the Death Penalty is introduced to corruption and economic crimes, the political society will quickly work for its abolition”. I have continued to maintain that let those our highly corrupt politicians who are found guilty be equally be sent to the gallows as it is done in places like China. The corrupt politicians brought us to the mess we found ourselves now and they must not be exempted from the Death Penalty when it becomes necessary. They killed our rail system through corruption and we are all now paying the price for that which including the recent unfortunate incident that occurred in Lagos State at the Otedola Bridge along Lagos –Ibadan Expressway when a trailer carrying fuel exploded and set many other vehicles ablaze wherein many lives and properties were lost. In countries where things work, heavy loads being carried about by trailers on our expressways and roads here are being carried through rail transports system. But what do we have here? We have a situation where corruption has killed our rail system .The trailer drivers have turned our expressways and roads to the car racing fields where they compete on how many lives of the people they can waste .Very recent some tanker drivers engaged in such madness at Ojuelegba in Lagos and unfortunately they succeeded in sending many people away from this world. All these unlawful acts have persisted because there have not been sufficient scapegoats. When such thing happened, it is either the negligent drivers run away and leave their trailers behind which are a time set ablaze by those who are around to express their displeasure and annoyance. Government must do everything possible to revive our failed rail system. This kind of death and destruction on our expressway and roads must stop. As to the Herdsmen and Farmers who have unfortunately been on one another‘s throats for a while now, this incessant crises is unnecessary and uncalled for. The Herdsman and Farmer need each other serious if there is adequate understanding and tolerance between them. In those days when we were in secondary school and being taught Agricultural Science, I remember vivid that we were told that there were different method of farming which include a system where a farmer would cultivate a particular place for his farming and the herdsman would equally have a particular place where he put cows and his other livestock to feed them there. After the crops’ harvest the farmer would move to where the herdsman has been rearing his cows and other livestock while the herdsman moves to the farmer’s place. I believe those who studied Agricultural Science and experts in it will be in the position to discuss this better and advise the government at various levels on the real way to go about this. If we are against the open grazing then we must support how the ranching will come into a reality. Everyone must contribute to this discussion for us to find lasting solutions to these problems. These senseless killing here and there is becoming too much and embarrassing. This senseless killing must stop. Another problem facing us as a nation is the unguarded statements that normally emanate from some religious, ethnic and community leaders when such incidents occur. Those statements most time do not help matter but rather aggravate the situation from bad to worse. For instance, to call a particular incident a retaliatory is nothing but a high level of madness and in such situation those in charge of security should not fold their arms but must immediately go after such persons no matter how high they may be. Those persons must be arrested for proper investigation and taken to the court of law if it becomes necessary. Nobody must be above the law. The law must be taller than everybody. If some people decide to be going about killing other people senselessly , I think there will be sense in getting them arrested including their sponsors to face the law and if found guilty be asked to face the Death Penalty. If they want to live they must also allow other people to live. Also where any person is convicted for murder by the law court, his or her people must not carry wolf where there is none or cast aspersion on the integrity of the court that gave the judgment, if they are aggrieved by the judgment, let them follow through our judicial appellate system. To do otherwise will be nothing but a cheap blackmail. Some people have argued that many victims of Death Penalty are people that were tortured and forced to confess to the death they did not commit. I believe the new Administration of Criminal Justice Law has taken care of this except some people are not abreast with the new law. For a confessional statement to be admissible in court and stand the test of judicial process this time around, the Defendant or accused person alleged to have made the confessional statement must have been video-taped while doing that or he must have done that in the presence of a lawyer of his choice. In the absence of any of these, any confession statement sought to be tendered is as dead as wood. Also our judicial system allows appellate system whereby if a person facing offence that carries Death Penalty is convicted by a High Court judge that sat alone, the convict if aggrieved by the conviction can approach the Court of Appeal that will sit in panel of 3 Justices or 5 Justices if it bothers on Constitution. Again if he is not satisfied with the findings of the Court of Appeal, then he can proceed to the final bus stop which is the Supreme Court that will also sit in the panel of 5 Justices or 7 Justices. If the Supreme Court pronounces that the person must die, that is the end except the President of the country exercises his power of prerogative of mercy which he hardly exercises. I belong to the school of thought that says DEATH PENALTY should not be abolished. When Buhari /Idiagbon’s regime prohibited the carriage of hard drugs, some people who belled the cat then were tied to stake and shot before their relatives. After that can you mention any person that bell the cat until there was a palace coup? If herdsmen kill farmers or vice versa and they are caught and tried in the law court and found guilty, please send them to the gallows. If those tanker drivers who have turned our expressway and roads to the car racing fields to compete killing people senselessly and destroy properties are equally apprehended, let them face the music of law. If they have the rights to live, let them respect the rights of other people to equally live. We must all put an end to all these madness. REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT On the need to reform mode of taking confessional statement “The Court of Appeal described the defence of the appellant as confused. This is true. The reason is simple. The appellant did not have the service of a legal practitioner when he wrote Exhibit E, a day after the incident. It must be noted that most crimes are committed by people with little or no education; consequently they are easily led along by Investigating Police Officer to write incriminating statements which legal minds find almost impossible to unravel and resolve .Confessional statements are most times beaten out of suspects, and court usually admit such statements as counsel and the accused are unable to prove that the statement was not made voluntarily. A fair trial presupposes that police investigation of the crime for which the accused person stands trial was transparent. In that regards it is time for safeguards to be put in place to guarantee transparency .It is seriously recommended that confessional statement should only be taken from suspect if, only if his counsel is present ,or in the presence of a legal practitioner. Where this is not done such a confessional statements should be rejected by the court”. Per RHODE – VIVOUR , JSC in Owhoruke Vs Commissioner of Police (2015) 15 NWLR (Pt.1483) 557 at 576 Paras A-D THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On law governing a case “It is a well-established principle of law that a case is governed by the law in operation when the cause of action arose. The rights and obligations of parties can only be determined by the provision of the active law when their cause of action arose” See N.E.P.A Vs. ATCIKPOR (2001) 1 NWLR (Pt. 693) Pg. 109 Para G For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735. Your library is incomplete without these books.]]>
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