No fewer than 225 death row inmates are awaiting execution in Correctional Centres across Kaduna and Kano states.
Checks by the News Agency of Nigeria in the two states indicated that 150 of them are in Kano and 75 are languishing in Kaduna cells.
The NSCoS Public Relations Officer, Kano, Musbahu Kofar-Nassarawa, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Kano.
“One hundred and fifty condemned criminals, both male and female, are awaiting execution”, said Kofar-Nasarawa.
He explained that sometimes, some chief executives were reluctant to sign death warrants, as such, some inmates spent years awaiting execution.
“We are facing challenges of prison congestion because some chief executives are not willing to sign the death warrant, resulting in some condemned inmates spending years awaiting execution,” Kofar-Nassarawa added.
On his part, Shehu Abdullahi, Kano State Coordinator of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said there was the need for the authorities concerned to address the problem of condemned convicts spending years in cells of Correctional Centres.
“At times, these criminals revolt by attacking warders, even if the crime they commit demands execution,” he said.
A legal practioner, Abdulrazaq Ahmed, said it amounted to infringement on the rights of a condemned criminal to keep him or her for years without carrying out the penalty, or commuting the sentence.
In Kaduna, spokesperson for the State’s Command of Nigeria Correctional Service, Zaki Emmanuel, declined request by NAN for interview on the matter, but rather referred the agency’s reporter to the website of the Correctional Centre.
Information extracted from the website indicated that there were 75 inmates on death row in cells of Correctional Centres across the state – 74 of them in Kaduna and one person in Zaria.
