Former United Nations Human Rights Adviser Uche Emelonye has advised the National Assembly to focus on eradicating crimes rather than introducing stiffer punishments.
Emelonye stated this on Wednesday during an appearance on Arise News while reacting to the proposed death penalty for kidnappers by the Senate.
Naijaonpoint reports that the Nigerian Senate adopted a resolution that any individual convicted of kidnapping should automatically face the death penalty.
Reacting, the UK-based Nigerian professor said, “The Senate should focus on preventing crime rather than increasing the punishment threshold.
“The 9th Senate in 2020 moved kidnapping from 10 years’ imprisonment to life. Are we safer now between 2020 and 2025? Has kidnapping reduced? The preventive aspect has to be addressed.
“The point I’m trying to make is to look at what it is; the first port of call for any reform towards the justice system in Nigeria. It is not the severity of the punishment. It is a preventive nature of the punishment.
“Criminals everywhere in the world are deterred more by the likelihood of being caught than the likelihood of being punished. It’s been proven. So it’s not my theory but anywhere in the world. And I mean, there’s also this instance that it has worked in other countries. It has worked in China. It has worked in the US, and so on and so forth.
“However, we’re making a mistake. The crime is not the same as in Nigeria. Our security architecture is completely different and weakened. That’s what makes those aspects of intervention work in those countries.
“So we cannot export that theory, that it works in China and will bring it into Nigeria, particularly, if I may remind you and also remind Nigerians that the death penalty is in our body of law on robbery and murder.
“And I can tell you that the last execution in this country was in 2016 by former Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State. He is the last person that signed the death warrant.
“And if it works, why are other governors not signing it? If it works, is Edo State safer than other states in Nigeria?”
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