Reverend King And Others To Be Executed Soon

Over 8 years after Reverend King was charged to court and sentenced to death in Lagos for various crimes including murder, it seems justice is finally being served as the Lagos State Government as finally decided to execute Reverend King among other offenders.

The nation’s apex court had on 27 February 2016 upheld the judgment of the Appeal Court which passed death penalty on King, saying the condemned reverend must die by hanging.

State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem at a ministerial press conference on Tuesday in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria said the state government was reviewing the matter with a view to taking a crucial decision very soon.

Kazeem said he visited prisons in the state recently and that it was on the instruction of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, saying that what the prison officials drew his attention to was the highhandedness of those on death row as they felt that they had certain rights which excluded them from being executed.

He said the prison officials complained bitterly about this and wanted the government to take action to remedy the situation.

“Very soon, you will see the action of this government on that issues, we are reviewing the case on Rev. King and others on death roll,” he said.

Kazeem, who said the previous administration had not deemed it fit to sign documents for the execution of convicts on death row, vowed that the Ambode administration was moving towards signing the execution document to executive those on death row.

“Lots of people are on death row, Rev. King is not the only one on death row, it is on the instruction of Ambode that I visited the prisons recently and I discuss the issue with the prison officials and they expressed concern.

“We are moving in that direction of signing. The prison officials said we need to look at that seriously. Those on death row are beginning to think they have some rights. We are going to move in that direction, you will hear from me, but I will not tell you the exact date,” he said.

On the issue of Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha, Kazeem disclosed that the state government had re-opened the case, saying that government was putting machinery in motion to ensure that justice was done on the matter.

Al-Mustapha was allegedly fingered in the murder of the late Kudirat Abiola, but he won the case in the court. However, the court has given the state government to nod to re-open the case.