Governors Reject Death Penalty for Looters; They Are Involved

                    
Many governors, who spoke with Punch on the matter on Thursday, out rightly rejected the suggestion that all big man who loot Nigeria's resources should be sentenced to death.

The governor said, “Everybody knows President Muhammadu Buhari is transparent and means well for the nation and would never want to hear anything about corruption.

“Even under 100 days in office, electricity is improving. People know that if you try it you are gone. I always say this, whether you are a governor, permanent secretary or labour leader, you cannot be corrupt under a leader that is not corrupt, because you will be punished.

“Unfortunately as a governor
I cannot be saying that capital punishment should be meted out to corrupt public officials. Because I cannot say that, that is why I will say that anybody that is found wanting, whether you are governor or any other public officer should be jailed for life,” Governor Ibikunle Amosun said this to Labour.

The organised labour at the beginning of the week had said looters should be given the death sentence in order to serve as deterrence to others.

But most governors, who reacted to the labour suggestion said the death sentence would be too harsh.

Also both governors of Ekiti and Rivers states, Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike respectively, out rightly rejected death penalty for looters.

Fayose claimed that “In countries where death penalty was introduced, it has not stopped looting. In advanced countries like US, jail sentence is the penalty. What we need is proper moral education to change orientation of the people. Jail sentence is better; it can reform.”

On his part, Wike said that Nigeria had enough laws to deter people from fleecing the nation.

He said, “Nigerians have a role to play by deriding looters and not to praise them for their fiscal irresponsibility. There should be a strong punitive measure to discourage looting because of its domino effects. When a treasury is looted, there won’t be money for the provision of necessities such as hospitals, roads, etc.

“Maybe because it happened in Ghana and the economy improved, the labour organisations want it in Nigeria. But that was a military regime and Jerry Rawlings was a military man. However, the extant laws on looting need serious and urgent review, even if the death penalty is discouraged.”