Capital Punishment: Human Rights Coalition Commends Amnesty International

*Tasks FG to commute death sentence on Rev King

Chiemelie Ezeobi
The Integrated Coalition for Human Rights (ICHR), has commended Amnesty International for its call for the abolition of capital punishment (death penalty) in the legal system all over the world.

In the same vein, the coalition which pledged its commitment towards making Nigeria one of the beneficiaries, said the death sentence for Founder and General Overseer of Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo a.k.a Rev. King, should be commuted.

In a statement signed by its coordinator, Dr. Raphael Umoren, the coalition said the issue has been long overdue, adding that it calls for urgent attention from all the countries of the world.

According to him, so many cases of injustice have been carried out under the guise of capital punishment and a lot of innocent blood have been shed as a result of perversion of justice especially, in developing countries of the world.

He said, “This is the time to sanitise the system and call the attention of world leaders to the vexatious and obnoxious issue of death penalty.

“In Nigeria, we have recorded innumerable cases where justice was glaringly perverted and human beings sacrificed in the alter of pecuniary considerations. If not for the discretion of our democratic governors, many more would have been murdered the same way.

“A case in point which needs urgent attention is the miscarriage of justice against the Founder and General Overseer of Christian Praying Assembly, Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo a.k.a Rev. King, who was recently sentenced to death in Nigeria.

“His case was simply put, a travesty of justice and not in tune with modern day trials. The trial, prosecution and the eventual conviction by the Supreme court of Nigerian falls short of all known legal procedure which warrants death sentence and we have called on the powers that be to commute the sentence without delay.
“We are saying this based on the premise that the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, while filling information against the accused conveniently omitted two written statements by the deceased where she stated unequivocally that Rev. King had no hand in what happened to her, rather, it was a generator accident.
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