Sign Death Warrant Of Prisoners, FG Tells Governors

The National Economic Council (NEC) has un­folded new measures to tackle the nagging prob­lem of prison congestion in the country.

One of the measures recom­mended by NEC is for state gover­nors to sign more death warrants for the execution of condemned prisoners waiting on the death row.

So, for death row inmates and various condemned prisoners, the hangman may soon knock on their doors – to put them to death.

As an alternative to death sen­tence, the Council affirmed that the governors may wish to com­mute the death-row inmates’ sen­tences to jail terms.

These decisions were reached on Thursday at the NEC) meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House, Abuja.

Governor Dave Umahi of Eb­onyi State, who spoke on the out­come of the NEC meeting with State House correspondents, said the decisions were taken after the Council was briefed by the Min­ister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, and the Comptroller-General of Prisons, on the condi­tions of the nation’s prisons.

The pathetic scenario paint­ed in the presentation showed the need for an emergency declaration on the state of Nigerian prisons, Governor Umahi said.

He said that one of the key rec­ommendations was that gover­nors should be encouraged to sign death warrants of those convict­ed with capital punishment; and in conjunction with state chief judg­es, free as many as possible under the prerogative of mercy.

“Governors should do a num­ber of things to decongest the pris­ons. Chief Judges of states should frequently visit prisons. Governors should either sign death sentenc­es of those condemned or com­mute them because it is risky leav­ing them after their trial had been concluded. NEC resolved that there should be an emergency sit­uation on prisons,” Umahi stated.

He further said that NEC tasked governors to deploy all powers within their reach to sal­vage prisons including the en­gagement of private sector partic­ipation, especially as some of the inmates could be engaged in ag­riculture.

According to him, “the Min­ister of Interior and CG, Nigeria Prisons, briefed the Council on the state of prisons and inmates throughout the country. The sit­uation they painted was quite pa­thetic. I must confess that I visited the prisons in my state for the first time recently after a jail break and what l saw was terrible.”

“So, it was agreed that gover­nors should on their own develop initiatives to manage the prisons. For instance, some have trans­ferred prisons from urban cen­tres. NEC agreed that governors should support the Federal Gov­ernment on prison matters.”

“States that have the capacity to build prisons should go ahead and do so, including the involve­ment of private sector participa­tion. The minister said that 70 per cent of inmates are awaiting trial.

“Some of them can be con­verted to labour use. Ten per cent of them are condemned, mean­ing 20 per cent are true prison­ers. Some of the prisoners should be engaged in agricultural pro­gramme”.

Meanwhile, the governor said he was misquoted in news reports that he opposed the agitation for restructuring of the country be­cause Ebonyi is not yet econom­ically viable to seek independence.
The governor was reported to have declared that he was neither in support of the agitation for Bi­afra nor the call for restructuring because the two proposals were not going to benefit the state and its people.

However, Umahi told jour­nalists that he neither said so nor meant such, and declared that neg­ative social media reports were de­stroying Nigeria.

Also at the NEC meeting, Os­inbajo extended indefinitely the Budget Support Facility/Finan­cial Bailout to state governments which elapsed last month.

President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the bailout to enable the states meet their financial obli­gations, especially salary arrears to workers in the face of dwindling oil revenue and the attendant econom­ic recession the country.

The N510 billion Facility, a 12-month standby loan, was start­ed in June 2016, with a monthly amount of N50 billion in the first three months and N40 billion for the remaining nine months to 35 states.
Governor Ibrahim Dankwam­bo of Gombe State told State House correspondents that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, an­nounced the approval of the ex­tension of the facility at the NEC parley.
He said: “Although the finance minister presented that the Budg­et Support Loan Facility has been fully disbursed, she announced that the Acting President has directed that the facility continues until oth­er states’ claims are paid.”

He also disclosed that the Ac­countant-General of the Federa­tion gave an update on the National Stabilisation Fund, the Natural Re­sources Development Fund and the Ecological Fund.

The accounts currently stand as follows: Stabilisation Balance as at June 28, 20117, (N28.5billion); Natural Resources Development Fund (N87.6billion) and the Eco­logical Fund (N28.9billion).

On the probe of remittanc­es to the Excess Crude Account, which currently stands at $2.3 bil­lion, Dankwambo said that about 18 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were being au­dited, while 10 others had been completed.

A more comprehensive report on the exercise, which started last year, would be expected at next NEC meeting, he stated.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Devel­opment Goals (SDGs) briefed the NEC on the implementation of the SDGs in Nigeria.

The updates on SDGs’ imple­mentation included careful plan­ning to move MDGs to SDGs; in­tegration of SDGs into the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP); rollout of SDGs Needs Assessment and costing ex­ercise; data mapping and determi­nation of SDGs baseline indicators to benchmark; among others.

Also, the Director-Gener­al of National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Sani Aliyu, briefed the NEC on its activities, disclosing that an estimated three million Nigerians are living with HIV/AIDS.

It was also learnt that some states have budget allocation for HIV programmes but not re­leased.
Issues of HIV needs to be pri­oritised while at least 0.5% to 1% of monthly Federation Allocation to States is to be set aside for fi­nancing the implementation of the HIV/AIDS programme.