Four convicts hanged in Edo, as Amnesty, LEDAP kick

Governor Adams Oshiomhole

Amnesty International faults execution

By Ndubuisi Ugah with agency reports

The Edo State Government  Monday hanged four prisoners, in what was believed to be the country’s first known executions since 2006, drawing outrage from rights activists.

The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Henry Idahagbon, confirmed the hanging of the four prisoners, who had been convicted of either armed robbery or murder, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to the commissioner, all their appeals had been exhausted and their death warrants were signed.

“The court gave the judgment this afternoon that the execution could go ahead and the prison authority went ahead,” Idahagbon said.

He added that the executions were carried out by the prison service, a federal agency, and not the state government.

However, he said he was informed by prison authorities of the executions.

The state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, had signed two of the death warrants since the crimes occurred in the state, as required by law.

“Governors from elsewhere signed the two other death warrants. Since the prison system is federal, prisoners could be moved elsewhere in the country. A fifth prisoner is also due to be executed, but his sentence dated back to the military era that ended in 1999 and called for him to be killed by firing squad, which prison authorities were not yet prepared to do,” he said.

While they would mark the first official, known executions since 2006, Nigerian security forces have been repeatedly accused of

extra-judicial killings during that time period.

Amnesty International said in a statement that it had received “credible reports that authorities in Edo State ... have hanged four

men in Benin City Prison on Monday - the first known executions in the country since 2006.”

“If confirmed, these executions mark a sudden, brutal return to the use of the death penalty in Nigeria, a truly dark day for human rights

in the country,” Amnesty deputy director for Africa, Lucy Freeman, said in the statement.

The human rights organisation urged Nigerian authorities to stop all  executions immediately and “return to the moratorium on executions in the country.”

“We oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception, as it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” it said.

President Goodluck Jonathan recently called on state governors to sign death warrants, saying it was their responsibility under the law, according to local media reports.

According to Amnesty, about 1,000 people were thought to be on death row in Nigeria.