The Ogun State government is contemplating signing the execution warrants of condemned offenders who have been sentenced by competent courts to discourage anyone from committing horrible crimes in the state.
This was revealed on Friday by the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN), during a planned tour of the facilities and prisoners at the Ibara Correctional Centre in Abeokuta, the state’s capital.
Ogungbade, who was escorted by Centre police, voiced his alarm about the rise in violent crimes in the state in recent years, including cultism, ritual killings, and kidnapping.
He hinted that the state government is prepared to take the bull by the horns and sign the execution warrants to put the law into effect.
According to him, there seems to be an increase in crime, especially ritual killings, despite the proactive measures security agencies have taken to combat it.
The government has determined that the primary cause of these crimes is the false belief that there won’t be any consequences when they are committed.
He stated, “I can assure you that we are carefully considering ways to convey the message that Ogun State is not a place where you can come and commit such serious crimes and get away with it.”
“The present laws stipulate, for instance, that a murder case carries the death penalty in addition to certain other charges. But if you take a national view, governments in every state have traditionally been reluctant to sign death sentences, especially since democratic governance began. However, I can promise you that we are now taking the application of the law extremely seriously.
“It is the governor’s responsibility to issue death warrants, and I do not doubt that he took the oath of office well aware of the obligations involved. I can guarantee you that he will fulfil his constitutional obligation to enforce the rule of law in worthy situations because he is a governor who does just that.
“I can only say that it will happen in worthy cases, which we are looking at, even though I may not provide a timeline.”
He claimed that rather than acting carelessly, the government would be extremely accountable and responsive.
“If an individual has used all of his appeals and gone through the fair trial process, we will start to seriously consider putting those rulings into effect in the hopes that it will act as a deterrent to those who still plan to commit such crimes.”
However, he promised, “I can guarantee you that we would approach it methodically and not carelessly.”
According to him, the current administration has made significant progress in offering amnesty to individuals who were given death sentences by converting them to life in prison, lowering the life sentence to a set period of incarceration, and permitting punishment to act as a deterrent.
