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Many Nigerian governors have come out to reject the death penalty for looters.Speaking with The Punch on Thursday, the governors outrightly rejected the suggestion that looters of the nation’s resources be sentenced to death.
This development stems from the fact that Organised Labour- the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress at the beginning of the week said looters should be given the death sentence in order to serve as deterrence to others.
On their decision, Labour said it was only by killing looters that the anti-corruption crusade being championed by President Muhammadu Buhari could succeed; an action most governors said would be too harsh.
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Speaking on the matter, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun said he would rather suggest that looters be sentenced to life imprisonment, rather than the death sentence prescribed by the organised labour.
Amosun made this suggestion while addressing the state workers who had marched to the Oke Mosan state secretariat in Abeokuta to give their backing to Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade.
The governor said:
Everybody knows President Muhammadu Buhari is transparent and meants well for the nation and would never want to hear anything about corruption.It is not only politicians that should shun corruption, workers too should not be corrupt, Amosun's counterpart in Plateau State, Simon Lalong, also said he would rather prefer life imprisonment to death penalty. Speaking to The Punch correspondent, Lalong’s Director of Press Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Nanle, said:
Even under 100 days in office, electricity is improving. People know that if you try it you are gone. I always say this, whether you are a governor, permanent secretary or labour leader, you cannot be corrupt under a leader that is not corrupt, because you will be punished.
Unfortunately as a governor, I cannot be saying that capital punishment should be meted out to corrupt public officials. Because I cannot say that, that is why I will say that anybody that is found wanting, whether you are governor or any other public officer should be jailed for life.
In all his discussions, Lalong has never mentioned death sentence. He has always preferred life imprisonment to taking human life because to him life is sacred
.Also, both governors of Ekiti and Rivers States, Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike respectively, out rightly rejected death penalty for looters.
Fayose, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said:
Fayose, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said:
In countries where death penalty was introduced, it has not stopped looting. In advanced countries like US, jail sentence is the penalty. What we need is proper moral education to change orientation of the people. Jail sentence is better; it can reform,” he told one of our correspondents in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
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