Some legal practitioners have expressed different opinions on the debate over the bill recently passed into law by the Senate.
While some of them urged called on President Bola Tinubu not to assent to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 passed by the Senate, others expressed the need for the President to sign it into law.
The bill passed on Thursday prescribed the death penalty for persons found guilty of trading hard drugs and narcotics.
Some of the lawyers, who spoke with DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS on Friday expressed their rejection of the bill and insisted that the death penalty was not a solution to drug trafficking and other drug-related offences in the country.
A former Chairman of the NBA, Jos Branch, Tob Kekemeke, who described the bill as cheap and out of fashion, said the death penalty should be reserved for those who stole public funds and engaged in other economic sabotage.
Kekemeke said, “As a lawyer, I’m against it (death penalty). This does not translate that we are lending our support to those who are trafficking in drugs. What we are saying is that the death penalty is not a solution to drug trafficking.
“Those who steal our money in billions and trillions should rather suffer death because as a matter of fact, they are responsible for the stealing of public funds resulting in a general economic hardship that is a trigger for some people to engage in such misbehaviour. In other countries, economic crimes are treated more severely.”
Kekemeke, who called on the president not to assent to the bill in the interest of the country added, “For me, the death penalty should be reserved for murderers and take who take lives. But I think it is out of fashion even in the international community to impose the death penalty on drug offenders.
“I do not subscribe to that and I believe the House of Representatives should not pass the bill and above all, our president should not attend to it if they toe the line of the Senate.”
Another lawyer, Ketura Saliyuk, who condemned the Senate for passing the bill, described it as too severe.
“The bill is uncalled for. I believe offenders should be given another chance. If the bill intends to ensure deterrence, it means the objective is defeated on arrival with the prescription of the death penalty.
“Again, what happens to the rehabilitation centres across the country if those meant to be rehabilitated are turned around to be killed?” she asked.
Similarly, Kindness Gwandem called on the National Assembly to look for creative ways to empower the youths with enabling laws, which he noted would be most affected if the death penalty bill was eventually passed into law.
Conversely, a cross-section of legal practitioners in Benue State applauded the senate for approving the death penalty for importers and dealers of hard drugs into Nigeria.
Speaking to our correspondent in Makurdi on Friday in a telephone chat, two legal practitioners, Vembe Shima, and Antaav Kume, argued that the bill if it becomes a law will curb the activities of hard drug dealers.
Shima said, “Though the death penalty is an issue that needs serious deliberation not only in Nigeria but across the world but as a lawyer I know that some people are afraid of certain things because of the penalty involved.
“So, if we are ready to curb these hard drugs in our country, we must start from somewhere, so I support what the Senate has done and I call on the president to assent to the bill.”
In his contribution, Antaav Kume, said, “We all know how hard drugs affect the youth population, so if the government has taken such a drastic move, I see it as a right step in the right direction.
“If we look at the negative impact of hard drugs in our society, I don’t think the death penalty is too harsh.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian House of Representatives has said it will act in the public interest when considering whether to agree with the Senate to approve the death penalty for drug peddlers, the spokesman for the House, Akin Rotimi has said.
The action of the Senate has since divided opinions with some lawyers and civil society organisations faulting the position of the upper legislative chamber.
Speaking with our correspondent, Rotimi said, “The House, through its collective wisdom, will consider and do what’s in the best interest of Nigerians.”
Abuja-based constitutional lawyer and rights activist, Frank Tiete was one of the first commentators to fault the stand of the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate on Thursday.
“It is disappointing that the Senate is considering the death penalty for drug trafficking – this is an offence where one can be easily framed and it is dangerous that this is the mindset of those who make our laws,” Tiete said in an interview with Arise Television a few hours after the Senate approved the death penalty.
However, another legal practitioner, Solomon Bankole, said, “Well, sometimes the abnormal situation requires an abnormal solution, and the menace of drug addiction is so pronounced amongst our youth that if care is not taken, few years to come, mad people on the streets would be so high and uncontrollable because of the negative effects of the aftermath.“
However, I think the bills should be amended in a way to capture the sellers and of course the supplier of the drugs to the sellers because at the end of it, vulnerable Nigerians would be recruited by these drug lords to be the sellers and they would eventually become the victims of the law if assented to by the executive.
“In conclusion, the law should be encompassing not to be limited to only death sentencing but the confiscation of the property of both the sellers and suppliers.
”On his part, the Ogun State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN), on Friday, said if the bill was passed by the Senate, the power to sign the death warrant of anyone found guilty would lie with the Federal Government.
The Commissioner said, “If the bill is given assent by the President and it becomes law, defendants will be arraigned in court under that law.“Since it is a federal law, the power to sign death warrants for convicts, who have exhausted their rights of appeal, will reside in the President and not the governor of any state.”
