Governors Rejects Death Penalty For Looters
Some Nigerian governors have rejected the
calls by the trade unions that capital punishment be meted out to pubic
official found guilty of corruption.
Labor said it was only by killing looters that the anti-corruption crusade
being championed by President Muhammadu Buhari could succeed.
While the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, agitated that looters be
sentenced to life imprisonment, rather than the death sentence prescribed by
the organised labour, his Nasarawa state counterpart, Umaru Al-Makura, said he
supported that capital punishment be meted out to corrupt public office
holders.
“I really agree with the NLC over call for capital punishment for any public
office holder who is found guilty of looting public funds,” Umaru Al-Makura
told Punch.
However, governors of Ekiti, Plateau and Rivers states, Ayodele Fayose, Simon
Lalong and Nyesom Wike rejected death penalty for looters.
“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,” Lalong’s Director of Press Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Nanle said.
Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, Fayose said
jail sentence was better and capable of reforming thieves.
“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.”
On his part, Wike who equally spoke through his special adviser on media,
Opunabo Inko-Tariah said; “Nigerians have a role to play by deriding looters
and not to praise them for their fiscal irresponsibility. There should be a
strong punitive measure to discourage looting because of its domino effects.
When a treasury is looted, there won’t be money for the provision of
necessities such as hospitals, roads, etc.
“Maybe because it happened in Ghana and the economy improved, the labour
organisations want it in Nigeria. But that was a military regime and Jerry
Rawlings was a military man. However, the extant laws on looting need serious
and urgent review, even if the death penalty is discouraged.”
Meanwhile, the president’s advisory committee on corruption has said that no
corrupt Nigerian will be spared in its anti-corruption crusade.
Source: Naij.com
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