The Nigerian president’s aide has defended his call for capital punishment for a young university graduate undergoing compulsory national youth service Corps (NYSC) member, for criticizing the country’s president over the prevailing hardship in the country.
Temitope Ajayi, a senior special assistant to President Bola Tinubu on media and publicity, defended his comments on the controversy surrounding the National Youth Corps Service (NYSC) member who criticised his principal.
He said “Citizens can abuse a living day out of their President or any public official. It is normal. But a corper violated her oath and code of conduct here. That is capital punishment under NYSC”
Going by the president’s aide’s recommendation of capital punishment for the young university graduate for seeking a better living condition for not only herself, but for Nigerians, capital punishment translated to death sentence for the NYSC member, according to the country’s constitution.
According to Ajayi, capital punishment is a legal penalty in Nigeria and should be meted out to the young university graduate for criticizing the president. According to the country’s constitution, Justification for capital punishment, which is the death penalty, is authorized by Section 33 of the Constitution.
Also, capital crimes are defined under several laws, namely The Criminal Code Act LFN (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) 1990 (which is almost impari materia with the various Criminal Code laws in the Southern part of Nigeria),
The Penal Code Act LFN 1990 (impari materia with the Penal Code operational in the various States in the Northern Part of the country),
The Robbery and Firearms Decree 1984, and The Sharia Penal Code (applicable in 12 Northern States).
Offenses punishable by death include armed robbery, murder, treason, conspiracy to treason, treachery, fabricating false evidence leading to the conviction to death of an innocent person, aiding suicide of a child or lunatic; and under Sharia Law zina (adultery), rape, sodomy, incest, witchcraft and juju offences.
However, Pregnant women and people younger than 18 may not be sentenced to death. If convicted of a capital offence, they will instead be sentenced to life imprisonment.
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