Minister urges Governors to sign death warrants of 3,000 condemned Nigerians to de-congest prisons

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has urged state governors to sign the death warrants of the 3,008 condemned criminals in the country waiting for execution.

Aregbesola appealed to the governors to sign the warrants, especially those whose appeals had been exhausted and were not mounting challenges to their convictions, as part of measures to de-congest prisons nationwide.

Aregbesola, who spoke at the commissioning of the Osun State Command headquarters complex of the Nigeria Correctional Service in Osogbo on Friday, harped on the need to bring to closure the cases involving the inmates.

The minister cited three avenues to de-congest prisons, stressing that the governors could accelerate the wheel of justice, as many inmates had been in custody for a period longer than the maximum sentence their alleged offences carry.

The minister, who described this as miscarriage of justice also urged the states to share in the burden of de-congesting custodial facilities by constructing holding centres.

He said that all the states needed to do was to build the facilities to specification and set aside a sum for the maintenance of inmates, while the NCS provided the personnel to man and run the facilities.

He said, “The third way is for state governors to summon the will to do the needful on death row convicts. There are presently 3,008 condemned criminals waiting for their date with the executioners in our meagre custodial facilities. This consists of 2,952 males and 56 females.

“In cases where appeal has been exhausted and the convicts are not mounting any challenge to their conviction, the state should go ahead, one, to do the needful and bring closure to their cases; two, set some others free on compassionate grounds, especially those who have grown old on account of the long time they have been in custody, those who are terminally ill and those who have been reformed and demonstrated exceptionally good behaviour; and three, commute others’ sentences to life or a specific term in jail.”