By Innocent Anaba

LAGOS—Avocats Sans Frontieres France, ASF, has faulted the retention of the death penalty in Lagos State laws, calling on the state government to reform the criminal justice system.

ASF Head Officer in Nigeria, Angela Uwandu in a statement, yesterday, said “The belief that the death penalty deters crime is fundamentally flawed because several studies over the years show that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent against crime.

“ASF France views the decision of the Lagos State Government to retain the death penalty in its laws as a most unwelcome development. The state government has determined that the death penalty is a suitable deterrent for crimes such as murder and armed robbery, based on randomly conducted opinion polls. This is in spite of the various aggressive death penalty abolition campaigns that have been launched in the state in the past decade.

“The decision casts a shadow on the status of the Lagos State Government as a progressive pace setter in legal policies. ASF France is particularly disappointed because the state government has chosen to hinge this decision on the opinions drawn from a 0.1 percentage of the estimated 20million people who constitute the population of Lagos state, without first laying the groundwork to ensure that the public is adequately enlightened about the implications of the death penalty.”