The Supreme Council of Bishops,
otherwise known as World Council of Bishops, has written President Muhammadu
Buhari, pleading for pardon for five young men sentenced to death by a court in
Adamawa for the killing of a herdsman.
Recall that a Yola
High Court had on June 11, 2018, sentenced the five men from Kodomun in Demsa
council area of the state to death by hanging for murdering a herder in
retaliation to the several killings in the area.
However, in the letter, the
bishops noted that Nigeria “has suffered untold bloodshed from killings,
maiming, traumatisation of innocent citizens around the north eastern, north
central and Middle Belt states, as a result of the frequent attacks by the
militia herdsmen times without number.”
The correspondence, titled,
“Special request for presidential pardon: Killing by hanging of five young
men,” was signed by founding Primate, Abuja, Nigeria, Archbishop (Dr.) P.
Sunday; Ecclesiastical Prelate Administrator, Houston, Texas, United State,
Archbishop (Dr.) H. Parker; Apostolic Nuncio and Prelate to Africa, Lagos,
Nigeria, Bishop (Dr.) J. Onyegbulem; and Ecclesiastical Prelate to West Africa,
Niamey, Niger Republic, Bishop (Dr.) J. Hussein.
The clerics regretted that “till
date no adequate justice had been meted out on them commensurate to the lives
and property lost.” It therefore “totally condemns and disapproves vehemently
the death sentence passed on the five young men on Monday, June 11, 2018 by a
court of competent jurisdiction in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria accused and
charged for killing a herdsman.”
The letter, dated June 13, 2018
from the World Episcopal Headquarters in Texas, U.S., was routed through the
Africa Episcopal Headquarters, Lagos and copied the Vice President, Yemi
Osinbajo; Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Chief Justice of the Federation,
Walter Samuel Onnoghen; Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara;
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha; as well as
Governor Mohammed Jibrilla and the state’s Attorney General, Silas Bala Sanga.
The bishops added “what our
nation Nigeria sues for now in our nascent democracy is peace and tranquility,
and not otherwise.”
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