Agbaje, Abdur-Rahman back death sentence call

Chairman of the Movement Against Corruption and Chief Missioner of Ansar Ud Deen, Imam Abdur-Rahman
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A Lagos lawyer, Fred Agbaje, has declared his support for the death penalty for corruption call recently made by the Arewa Consultative Forum.

Agbaje said, “If we feel that the death penalty will put an end to or reduce corruption in our society, so be it.”

He noted that the world was moving away from the death penalty and was rather opting for life imprisonment, but added that the situation in those countries was different.

He said, “In Nigeria, corruption has become the 37th state of the federation, growing in leaps and bounds and drawing its weekly and monthly allowances from the Federation Account. If the death penalty will address it, it’s okay because we have not reached the level the advanced countries have reached where they convert the death penalty to life imprisonment.

“I will suggest that there must be a fundamental surgical amendment to the act establishing the two anti-graft agencies. And it must include the removal of the power of the President to appoint the headship of the organisations. So long as the President retains the power to appoint the headship, the fight against corruption is a joke because you cannot fight yourself.”

He said that the civil society should be allowed to nominate candidates for the posts, adding that the loyalty of the heads would continue to be with the President as long as he is the one to appoint them.

Similarly, the Chairman of the Movement Against Corruption and Chief Missioner of Ansar Ud Deen, Imam Abdur-Rahman, described the call as “a desperate situation demanding a desperate solution.”

He said the call for death penalty was understandable, knowing the background of those making the demand.

He said, “If you look at the monumental havoc that corruption has wrecked and is still wrecking on the people, then the call for death penalty could be understandable. Whether it this is something that could be implemented is a different argument.

“Corruption kills people; corruption shortens life expectancy. The implication of corruption on our national and individual lives is unquantifiable. The call could be understood and desperate situations sometimes call for desperate answers.”

But in a sharp contrast, the National Leader of the Strategic Union of Professionals for the Advancement of Nigeria, Martin Onovo, disagreed, describing the demand as capable of diverting attention from the real problem plaguing Nigeria.

Onovo said that only God had the power over life.

“We are against all forms of capital punishment; only God had the power over life. These kinds of suggestions are very diversionary and they divert national attention from the real problem of Nigeria, which is the illegitimacy and the corruption of leadership,” he said.