Human
rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has asked Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of
Lagos State to commute the death penalty passed on death row inmates in the
state to life imprisonment instead of executing them.
Those
on death row upon the judgment of the court of Lagos State included the General
Overseer of Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, a.k.a. Rev. King.
Falana
argued in his letter dated April 19, 2017 and addressed to Ambode that the
planned execution of death row inmates in the state would violate a subsisting
judgment delivered in 2012 by the High Court of Lagos State which ruled that it
was illegal and unconstitutional to execute condemned inmates.
He
reminded the governor that the judgment of the court of the state had held that
to hang or subject death row inmates to firing squad would lead to the
violation of their fundamental right to freedom from torture guaranteed
by the constitution.
The
judgment was said to have been delivered by Justice Mufutau Olokooba of the
Lagos State High Court on June 29, 2012.
The
Lagos lawyer advised the state government to explore the only available option
of commuting the death penalty passed on the inmates to life imprisonment.
No comments:
Post a Comment