Ogun SSG backs death penalty for corruption

Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Mr. Taiwo Adeoluwa, has called for the imposition of capital punishment on persons found guilty of corruption. The nation’s criminal code and laws, he said, needed a review to ensure that culpable corrupt persons faced death penalty.
According to him, once the review takes place, corruption and its practices will have no place in the polity.
A statement by his Press Officer, Kunle Sokunbi, on Wednesday said the SSG spoke while delivering a paper entitled ‘Criminal Code, Magistrate Court Law of Ogun State and the Recent Trend of Crimes: a call for urgent reformation’ at the Magistrates’ Association of Nigeria conference in Abeokuta.
Adeoluwa said, “In the light of the danger corruption poses to our existence as a nation today, it is high time we began to excommunicate or even eliminate people found guilty of corruption. After all, in China, economic crimes attract maximum punishment. It may look extreme but I think we can go the China way.
“Nigeria penal policy is at cross roads. The starting point to the fixing of this problem is to learn from our mistakes and endeavour to formulate policies based on our experience. In whatever way it is formulated, it is important that the policy must adopt strategies or measures which may include harmonising our criminal laws, the removal of factors that encourage criminal behaviour, the offer of incentives and disincentives, education, deterrents and at the extreme end, sanctions.”
Meanwhile, a human rights activist, Bamidele Aturu, has urged students to contribute to the reformation of the nation.
Aturu, who made the appeal on Wednesday at the Inter University Moot and Mock Competition organised by the Faculty of Law Students, University of Ibadan, also warned them to shun corrupt practices.
Aturu said, “Law students must use law as an alternative for changing our society. Our society is going down and we require patriots to use their energies to change the trend. We are not going to allow wastage of resources and the tendency of running the country aground.”