ASF Advocates for Gender Perspectives in Use of Death Penalty in Nigeria

Enock Reuben in Abuja

An international non-governmental organisation, Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) France, formerly known as Lawyers Without Borders has said that no fewer than 82 female Nigerians are on death row in various correctional centres across the country, even as it advocated for gender perspective in application of death penalty.

The advocacy was made at the two-day workshop organised by ASF to champion the course of the female inmates who are on death row, as the World Women’s Rights Organisation celebrates in Abuja the 16 Days Advocacy on Gender Based Violence.

At the Workshop themed: “Capacity-building Session on Mainstreaming Gender Perspective in the Use of the Death Penalty”, the Country Director, ASF France in Nigeria, Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu said the statistics showed that the situation in Nigeria is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, with those on death row somehow neglected and forgotten.

Uzoma-Iwuchukwu further said: “We strongly believe that these women, who have often been neglected, forgotten, because they are behind bars and on death row need a voice, we have decided to raise their voices and their peculiar circumstances.

This is because there are gender issues around the application of the capital punishment. It is often projected as being neutral, but the death penalty is not neutral.

She added that “a lot of these women are victims of domestic violence, who, often when they react and it leads to maybe homicide cases, the criminal justice system fails to recognise them as victims as they go through the justice system”.

In the same vein, the Founder and Chief Facilitator, Edeika Trauma Care Centre and Equity Advocates, Mrs Ene Ede, emphatically kicked against Death Penalty in all forms. She believes life is sacred.

She said: “Anything that has to do with taking life, is of utmost importance to God, to humanity, to nature and to our country because, it is about deflection of human resources, it is about grieving, it is about injustice, because most of the time you find elements of injustice embedded in this life sentencing. So, it is very problematic. If we look at it with another eye, the better for us. It is not something we should be in hurry to do”.

“Therefore, it will be better to abolish death penalty in Nigeria. That is not to say we want to encourage criminality, even with the law in place, there is escalation of criminality. We need to look at the justice system again with a human eye, with empathy, with patriotism, because it is citizens and human beings they are dealing with and not animals.”