Abuja: Dr Uju Agomoh, the Executive Director of Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), has reiterated her call for Nigeria to abolish the death penalty. Agomoh emphasized the need for the Nigerian government to align its justice system with international human rights standards and adopt more humane and rehabilitative justice practices.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Agomoh, who is also an Associate Professor of Criminology and Security Studies, pointed out the risks, psychological impacts, and moral implications associated with capital punishment. She highlighted that the death penalty is irreversible and susceptible to fatal errors due to flaws within the justice system. She expressed concerns about the potential for executing innocent individuals, citing issues such as poor investigations and inadequate legal representation.
Agomoh criticized the death penalty as inherently cruel and degrading, arguing that it fails to deter crime effectively. She noted that it does not address the underlying causes of crime and instead places additional burdens on inmates and the correctional system. The prolonged incarceration of individuals on death row, she stated, often amounts to psychological torture and strains prison resources.
PRAWA supports life imprisonment or long-term sentences with opportunities for rehabilitation over executions. Agomoh argued that these alternatives provide more constructive solutions and align with global justice reforms. She referenced a PRAWA-produced documentary on the death penalty that highlighted these concerns and proposed reforms.
Agomoh also shared her experience attending the 50th Anniversary of the Alternatives to Violence Project in the USA, where she met Otis Johnson, a man wrongly sentenced to 42 years in prison. She emphasized the irreversible nature of wrongful convictions and the necessity to avoid such outcomes in Nigeria.
She called for improved investigative practices, fair trials, victim support, and offender rehabilitation. Agomoh cited Rwanda’s Gacaca community-based justice system as a model for addressing severe crimes through restorative justice instead of retribution. She urged Nigeria to consider similar approaches to preserve human dignity.
Highlighting human rights concerns, Agomoh pointed out issues such as wrongful executions, prolonged delays causing distress to inmates, inadequate access to appeals, and the disproportionate impact on marginalized groups. These conditions, she noted, contradict international agreements Nigeria has signed, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
To address these challenges, Agomoh recommended legislative actions to repeal the death penalty in Nigeria. She suggested commuting existing death sentences to life imprisonment and expanding non-custodial alternatives, including community service and parole, under the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019.
Agomoh highlighted Nigeria’s de facto moratorium on executions as an opportunity to formalize the practice through policy and law. Abolishing the death penalty, she argued, would demonstrate Nigeria’s commitment to dignity, justice reform, and a more humane penal system. She urged the country to lead by example in West Africa by embracing rehabilitative justice systems.
