Lawyers file appeal to halt 5th Nigerian execution

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) ? Human rights lawyers have filed an urgent appeal to try to prevent Nigerian authorities from executing a convicted armed robber by firing squad, two organizations said Thursday.

The suit filed Wednesday argues it is unconstitutional to deny an appeal to the man sentenced by a military tribunal in 1995, when Nigeria was under military dictatorship.

They said Thankgod Ebhos has been in prison since 1988. In 1995, when Nigeria was still under military dictatorship, he was tried under a section of the Robbery and Firearms Act that does not allow for an appeal against a judgment of a military tribunal. Ebhos was sentenced while Nigeria was under a military dictatorship notorious for unfair trials and torturing confessions from detainees.

On Monday, Ebhos was dragged to the gallows where he watched four fellow death-row inmates hanged at Benin State Prison in southern Edo state.

The hangings ended a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty in Nigeria.

Ebhos was reprieved because prison officials were not equipped to carry out his sentence of shooting by a firing squad, said Edo state Attorney General Henry Idahagbon.

"Why they have been in prison so long and not executed I do not know and cannot say," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He blamed "some people not wanting to do their job" ? an apparent reference to President Goodluck Jonathan's recent statements which urged governors to sign death warrants, no matter how painful they find it.

Idahagbon, who is also the state commissioner for justice, said he did not know when Ebhos may be executed. "I'm speculating but suspect prison authorities have to work with the military authorities to have the convict shot," he said.

"Any execution of the sentence of death passed on him by the military tribunal will be unlawful and further undermine respect for the rule of law in Nigeria," said the statement signed by director Justine Ijeomah of the Human Rights, Social Development and Environmental Foundation and Chino Obiagwu of the Legal Defense and Assistance Project.

The appeal was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-file-appeal-halt-5th-nigerian-execution-103715607.html

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