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Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin and Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu yesterday opposed proposed death penalty for hate speech offenders in the country.
He likened the penalty to sentencing someone who steals N10,000 to death and freeing another that steals N1 million.
Governor Akeredolu said this in Ilorin, Kwara State at the opening ceremony of the sixth biennial international conference of the University of Ilorin Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies department.
“When I was the president of the Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA) I vehemently opposed capital punishment for condemned criminals. I will be a turncoat as governor to now support death penalty for hate-speech offenders.
“As the governor of Ondo state I will not commit to death those condemned criminals, instead I will look into how to commute their sentences to life imprisonment. Or I will transfer them to other administrations.”
He regretted that there was no virile opposition in the country, adding that “every other person who was in opposition in 2015 has now crossed over to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). I am amused if I see them decamping in droves to the APC.”
The ex-NBA president added that injustice real or imagined has been responsible for the absence of peace in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Hhuman Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders Foundation (HURIDE) has given NASS 21 days to throw away the bill, suspend the sponsors of the bill and tender unreserved apology to Nigerians.
Chairman, Board of Trustees of HURIDE, Dede Uzor, in a statement said the reactivation of the bill was a clear indication that members of National Assembly were despots disguised as democrats.
He said if the lawmakers failed to back down on the bill, he would not hesitate to call out “progressive forces” to protest until they are forced to see reason why the bill must be given a death knell.
“This bill cannot stand. It should be thrown into the dustbin of history, like its forebears, Deceree four, which was promulgated by Muhammadu Buhari as former a Military President in 1983.
“He did that in 1983 when he introduced Decree Four, which he used to imprison citizens without trial. The National Assembly should apologise to Nigerians for coming up with this obnoxious, stone age and anti-people bill. The bill is dead on arrival . It is revival of draconian Decree Four of 1983. It is very shameful that our legislators allowed Buhari’s dictatorial tendency to loom large in a democratic environment” Uzor stated.
