The Lagos State Government has resolved to retain the death penalty in the Criminal Law of Lagos State to serve as deterrence against violent crimes such as murder and armed robbery.
An empirical research that surveyed the perception of Lagos residents is also said to have advised the state to execute those on death row.
Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, who disclosed this in a statement Wednesday, also explained that the decision was taken at a meeting of the Lagos State Executive Council which met and deliberated on the several abolition campaigns and international advocacy which were addressed to the state government.
Ipaye said that being a pacesetter in justice sector reforms, the State Executive Council exhaustively considered the propositions to abolish or retain the death penalty before arriving at the decision to retain the death penalty.
“In taking its decision, the state commissioned an empirical research that surveyed the perception of Lagos residents and elicited their opinion on the abolition debate, including the question whether they believe the death penalty currently deters violent crime.
“The objective and outcome of the survey is therefore to inform the development of a State policy on capital punishment that relies on empirical evidence and is based on consultation with citizens and justice sector stakeholders,” he stated.
The Attorney General enunciated that the survey was undertaken in two categories: public survey involving random selection of 2,000 members of the public and an expert survey in which 100 persons who have close contact with the criminal justice process and systems were selected.
According to him, “over half of the respondents (51.1 percent) advised Lagos State Government to execute convicts on death row; 38. 5 percent maintained otherwise; 9.7 percent were undecided while 0.8 percent did not proffer any opinion”.
He said “whilst 61.9 percent of the respondents believed that the death penalty is a necessary retributive tool, as much as 59 percent opined that the death penalty does not bring a sense of happiness to the family of the victim(s). A majority of the respondents (67.2 percent) however recommended that Lagos State should retain the death penalty”.
Ipaye remarked that the study found that gender, age and religion play important roles in understanding the orientation of Lagos residents on the issue of capital punishment. Hence while majority of the people support death penalty across the socio-demographics, more male, older people and less religious people support the death penalty.
“Majority of the respondents surveyed supported the use of the death penalty in Lagos State. The survey also revealed that over 54 percent of the respondents advised the Lagos State Government to execute convicts on death row. A large number of respondents also believed that the death penalty is a necessary retributive tool and a majority of the respondents recommended that the State should retain the death penalty because it serves positive retributive and deterrence purposes,” he added.
