Reverend King And The Hangman’s Noose That May Never Come
The recent judgment of the Supreme Court affirming the verdict of Justice Olubunmi Oyewole who sentenced controversial clergy, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo popularly called Reverend King to death by hanging has once again rekindled the debate on the relevance of the death penalty in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Olugbenga Soyele takes a look at the events that culminated into the apex court verdict on February 26, 2016 and the arguments for and against the death penalty.
Rev. King, as he is popularly called by his devotees, was first arraigned on the 2nd of July, 2006 at an Ebute-Metta Magistrate Court in Lagos along with two other persons on a 12-count charge of murder and attempted murder of seven of his church members. The matter was however, transferred to the Lagos High court on the advice of the state’s Directorate for Public Prosecution (DPP) on the ground that the magistrate court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case since it involved a capital offence.
So in September of the same year, Rev. King was re-arraigned before Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High court, Ikeja, on a six-count charge of attempted murder and murder of late Ann Uzoh King, a member of the convict's church, the Christian Praying Assembly (CPA).
He pleaded not guilty to the charge and the prosecution led by the DPP at the time, Mrs. Bola Ighile (now a judge of the Lagos high court) called about 12 witnesses amongst who were some victims of Rev. King’s alleged action. They included Olisa Chiejina, Chizoba, Uche Chukwu Iwoba, Vivian Ezeocha, Bunmi Olisa and Nwere Jessica.
In their evidence, they told the court how on 2 July, 2006 at Canal View Street, Ajao Estate, Rev. King set fire on seven of them over an allegation that they were committing fornication in his house. Vivian Ezeocha and Kelechi King, the principal witnesses narrated to the court how the accused turned them to sex toys by subjecting them to inhuman sex orgies.
In his defence, Rev. King through his counsel, Mike Okoye called six witnesses, who disputed the allegations.
In a judgment that lasted for three and a half hours, Justice Oyewole, who is now a Justice of the Court of Appeal, held that, “the convict acted intentionally and with impunity. I hold that the prosecution has established beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person murdered Ann Uzoh alias Ann Uzoh King. The only line of defense he had was total denial, an alibi which collapsed in the face of over-whelming evidence locating him at the scene of crime".
The judge also stated, "the accepted evidence before the court is that the accused was angered by the supposed improper sexual relationship among the victims, upon which he assaulted them in various degrees and later decided to kill them by burning them".
"He was in control of his senses sufficiently to move the burning out of his sitting room and away from his vehicles. While he inflicted various beatings on the victims, they never retaliated but were on their knees begging him. They called him daddy, yet all he thought of was to brutally terminate their lives".
"Setting human beings ablaze on allegations of improper conduct cannot be justified on grounds of provocation. It is most disproportional, same way as decapitation cannot be a remedy for headache".
"From his conduct during the trial, the accused was definitely not insane. I therefore find the accused person guilty as charged on each counts 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, and I hereby convict him accordingly on each of the said counts".
In a one-page sentence delivered immediately after the judgment, Justice Oyewole ruled that the maximum punishment for attempted murder is life imprisonment while that for murder is death penalty, the judge also held that the severity of the offences and cruel callousness behind them must be reflected in the sentence; and thereafter sentenced the convict to twenty years imprisonment each for the five counts of attempted murder, which are to run concurrently and shall only take effect if the sentence in respect of Count 6 (murder) is commuted or set aside.
Dissatisfied with the death sentence passed on him by the High Court, Rev. King, through his new lawyer, Olalekan Ojo appealed the decision. In the appeal instituted before the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, the convict sought to call additional witnesses to tender reports of forensic experts to show that petrol being highly inflammable in nature, there’s no way the man who ignited the matches that burnt the deceased to death will not have been affected by the light since the deceased was said to have been soaked in petrol.
The convict also argued in his appeal that the judgment of the trial court occasioned miscarriage of justice for relying on unresolved contradictions and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence.
He argued that there were contradictions in the testimonies of some of the prosecution witnesses with some saying that the cleric ordered for matches to set the victims ablaze and others saying he only ordered for matches after a lighter failed.
But in a judgment delivered by Justice Fatima Akinbami, the appellate court dismissed the appeal holding that the contradictions were immaterial to the case of the prosecution.
“Not all contradictions in the case of the prosecution will raise a doubt. For contradictions to be fatal to the prosecution’s case it must be related to the material fact. All the witnesses are unanimous that the appellant used matches”, she stated.
Justice Akinbami said the evidence given by eyewitnesses, and that of a pathologist ascribing the cause of death to “hypovolemic” (severe loss of blood and tissues), showed that Ezeugo’s action was the cause of one of the victims’ death.
Again dissatisfied with the verdict, Rev. King put his fate in the hands of the Justices of the Supreme Court, the convict filed five grounds in his notice of appeal arguing that the appellate court erred in law when it said in its judgment that the report of the forensic experts was supposed to have been tended at the trial court.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by a seven-man panel of Justices of the apex court led by Justice Walter Onnoghen, the court upheld the death sentence, and held that the appeal had no merit.
The apex court also affirmed the judgement of the court of appeal stating that the prison sentence that was earlier handed to the appellant is no longer relevant in view of the death sentence passed on him.
With this judgment the coast is now clear for the judgment of Justice Oyewole delivered nine years ago to be carried out subject to the signing of a death warrant by the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who is the only authority recognised by law to issue the warrant.
Unless there is a change of heart this may however not happen soon. Since the military disengaged from Nigerian politics in 1999, only two governors have signed death warrants in the country. They are the former Governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, who signed the first warrant in 2006, and the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, who signed the warrants of four death row prisoners executed by hanging in Edo State inJune 25, 2013.
Though the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the right to life, some offences are punishable by death across the Federation, they include: Murder & Armed Robbery. Aiding the suicide of a child or lunatic, fabricating false evidence leading to the death of an innocent person, instigating an invasion of Nigeria, treason and conspiracy to treason.
Recently, kidnapping has been added as a capital crime in some states in the south-south and south-east of the country, also 12 states in Northern Nigeria use the Sharia law, which prescribes death penalty for apostasy, incest, rape, Liwat (homosexual sodomy) and Zina (adultery). The states include Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
The National Assembly also enacted a Federal law to respond to increasing insecurity in the country and provided the death sentence for terrorism and related offences. In the same vein, the Nigerian Military under its military laws punishes misconduct in action, mutiny and dereliction of duty with the death penalty.
In a report titled, “Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Nigeria”, released by a civil society organization, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), 96 countries are said to have abolished the use of the death penalty while 59 countries including Nigeria still use the penalty. 49 countries permit the death penalty but have not used it for at least 10 years. In Africa, many large democratic states including Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Gabon & Togo have abolished the death penalty.
As at July 2014, prisons in River States had 157 inmates consisting of 149 males and eight females on death row, which is the highest in the country. Delta follows, with 149 convicted inmates, comprising 146 males and three females. Ogun State has 132 condemned felons, while Plateau State is left with 125 males and one female awaiting the governor’s execution order.
Other states with high death row inmates are Lagos 83, Kaduna 79, Enugu 75, Kano 51, Katsina 43, Edo 35, Cross River 17, Jigawa 18, Kebbi 13, Kwara 12, Federal Capital Territory 10, Niger 10, Ondo 7, Benue 6, Sokoto 6, Osun 5 and Taraba 4.
Those against the use of the death penalty in Nigeria argue that there is a high likelihood of wrongful conviction stemming from poor investigations by the Nigeria Police Force and the imperfections of the Nigerian criminal justice administration.
They also contend that the law is settled on the principle that it is better to set a hundred criminals free than to wrongfully convict and kill one innocent person and that it would be unjust to retain death penalty in the face of such imperfections in the Nigerian criminal justice administration.
Those who favour the use of death penalty maintain that anyone who has willfully killed, especially terrorists, simply deserves not to live. According to them, applying the death penalty on such people will completely foreclose the possibility of their wrecking more havoc on the society in the event that they are pardoned and released.
They also insist that killing heinous criminals will also serve as deterrence for others who may want to toe the same path.
And in opposition to those who want death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment, the protagonists of death penalty have also argued that keeping condemned criminals in prison will constitute a drain on the public purse, because, according to them, these condemned criminals are people that have been written off as those who cannot meaningfully contribute to the advancement of the society
As the argument for and against the death penalty rages, a very vibrant group, the Nigerian Death Penalty Group with the support of the UK government believe its time for Nigeria to stand with modern democratic states that have abolished or drastically restricted the use of the death sentence.
The reports of various groups that were set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo including the National Study Group On Death Penalty and Presidential Commission on Reform of the Administration of Justice also all recommended a moratorium on executions pending when total abolition can be actualised.
All of these coupled with the growing reluctance of state governments to also sign death warrants, the self imposed moratorium stance of the country and the calls especially by civil society groups for the abolition of the death penalty, the likes of Rev King may not see the hangman’s noose anytime soon.
