Nigeria: The criminal justice and repentant terrorists’ challenge
WITHIN jurisprudential echelons are the primacy of divinely- inspired laws; then, the laws of nature; and man- made laws. Inherent within that trinity, are the principles of actions and reactions, cause and effect, ditto crime and punishment, today’s focus.
Exemplifying that thesis, are copious examples from Mosaic law including: “breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again” per The Holy Bible, Leviticus 24 v20.
Other Abrahamic religions establish these principles - cause and effect; sin and punishment - as articles of faith. Likewise, karmic laws of actions and corresponding effects, traverse Buddhism, Ifa divination, Jainism, Hinduism, Sikhism. The Yorubas of South- Western Nigeria, express a striking adage which also reinforces that proposition: ilu ti ko si ofin, ko si ese ( lawlessness breeds anarchy!); thus, advancing the synergetic logic, of order, and retributive justice.
The laws of nature are no different. Environmental degradation, as distinguished from force majeure, yields the whirlwind of environmental pollution, deforestation, tsunamis etc, which harms humans and all mammals. Yet again, this speaks to the balance of actions and reactions, cause and consequence, ditto crime and punishment.
Philosophically, those very dynamics establish the rationale for the criminal justice system in progressive societies. That is, the preservation of societal order, law and justice, is, of absolute necessity, dependent not only upon the co- existence of effective laws and sanctions against criminality but, crucially, upon the consistent and robust enforcement of those very laws; strictly adhering to the rule of law.
This reinforces the cause ( crime) and effect ( punishment) dynamic. Simply therefore, crime attracts punishment: the weightier the crime, the weightier the punishment; which, inferentially, reinforces the deterrence logic of criminal law. Therefore, the criminal law, part- and- parcel of the constitutional order, reflects the legitimate aspirations of right- thinking citizens to live peaceably, abiding by the law; and, rightly, aims to, and punishes, those who violate the law; not as an end in itself, but with the overriding objective of rehabilitative justice.
For starters, the philosophical orthodoxies of actions and reactions, cause and effect, crime and punishment and karmic retribution are established in Nigeria’s criminal justice codes. These include the Criminal Code, the fons et origo of the criminal law in Southern Nigeria, and the Penal Code, which governs the criminal law in Northern Nigeria.
In Akpan v The State ( 2020) 6 NWLR ( PT 1720) 279 C. A., the Court of Appeal, held inter alia, that the prosecution, in a charge of murder must, evidentially, establish: ( i) the victim died; ( ii) the death was caused by the action of the accused; ( iii) that the accused possessed the mens rea to either kill the victim or cause him grievous bodily harm; and that because all those ingredients had been proven beyond all reasonable doubt, the appellant ( Sampson Jacob Akpan) was found guilty of the murder of Etim Akpan Udo.
Under the Penal Code, section 220, establishes the offence of culpable homicide in the following terms: whoever causes death ( i) by doing an act with the intention of causing death or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death; or ( ii) by doing an act with the knowledge that he is likely by such act to cause death; or ( iii) by doing a rash or negligent act to commit the offence of culpable homicide. Patently, the Criminal Code and the Penal Code, do not exist in vacuo, but within the framework of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution ( as amended), which, pursuant to sections 1 ( 1), ( 2) and ( 3), therein, is the supreme law, with binding force on all authorities and persons countrywide.
It is that vein, that the vicious inferno of terrorism that is besieging Nigeria comes to the fore. The gallantry of patriotic men and women of the armed forces must be saluted to the rafters because oftentimes, whilst confronting danger, they make the ultimate sacrifice, suffer life- changing injuries, to safeguard human lives and property nationwide; in the seemingly unending battle against violent extremism actioned by Ansaru, Boko Haram, ISWAP et al.
The real question then in the Nigerian context, is whether the purposive aspiration of rehabilitative justice is skewed in favour of extremist terrorist criminals, who have taken up arms against the state, who kill innocent people across the country at will; the so- called “repentant” terrorists? Or the whether the criminal justice and its underpinning restorative justice dimension is demonstrably weighted towards the majority of innocent law- abiding citizens?
The United Nations General Assembly ( GA RES. 49/ 60) depicts terrorism as “criminal acts intended to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.”
Therefore, groups that have taken up arms against the Nigerian state, engaged in the murder, kidnapping, enslavement of her peoples are plainly, extremist terrorist groups.
So, upon what compelling foundation is the rationale for releasing, the so- called “repentant” terrorists in Nigeria, bearing in mind that they have been held for the most heinous crimes against the state, including murder, rape, kidnapping, torture, abduction of children, the vulnerable etc? What is the point of the Criminal Code and Penal Code if gallant Nigerian armed forces officers, risk ( and in many cases lose!) their lives, and limbs, only to see captured terrorists released as “repentant” terrorists?
What is the definition a “repentant” terrorist? Do you then release a convicted rapist because he is a “repentant” rapist? Does a convicted armed robber metamorphose into a “repentant” armed robber? Where is the justice for victims of terrorism across the length and breadth of Nigeria?
According to Channels TV, February 17, 2024, terrorists, killed at least six people including a retired Director of Nigeria’s Central Bank, his brother, and abducted over 50 persons in the Kwassam and Sabon- Layin, Kaduna State. Barely 24 hours later, the Divisional Police HQ, Zamfara, was attacked by terrorists, resulting in the deaths of a police- officer and approximately seven persons. February 1, 2024: Oba Segun AremuCole, was shot dead by terrorists, who also abducted his wife and others in Ekiti LGA, Kwara State. January 2024: terrorists ambushed and killed Oba Ogunsakin and Oba Olatunji, in Ikole, Ekiti State; and killed seven farmers in Gwoza, Borno State. In the same month, terrorists kidnapped five students, three teachers and murdered the bus driver of Apostolic Faith Group of Schools, Emure- Ekiti.
Tuesday, January 23, 2024: the Plateau State Governor following a terrorist incident in which approximately 30 persons were killed in the Kwahaslalek precinct. The VOA reports that approximately 160 people were killed on Christmas Eve 2023, by terrorists in coordinated across 20 communities in the Bokko and Barkin Ladi areas of Plateau State in Central Nigeria. According to Associated Press, no group took responsibility for the heinous attacks, though “blame fell on herders from the Fulani tribe, who have been accused of carrying out such mass killings across the north west and central regions where the decades long conflict over access to land and water, has further worsened the sectarian division between Christians and Muslims in Africa’s most populous nation.” These attacks prompted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, to call for the Nigerian authorities to “conduct, prompt, thorough and independent investigations into the attacks…”
In two separate Boko Haram terrorist attacks in October 2023, within the Gurokeyaya precinct, of Yobe State, 37 people were killed and a further seven persons were injured. In August 2023, no less than 36 personnel of the Nigerian armed forces were killed by terrorists within the ZungeruTegina and Shiroro axis of Niger State, central Nigeria. Amnesty International further confirms that between June 9 and June 11, 2023, 59 persons were killed in the Katarko, Kusherki regions of North Central Nigeria, in terrorist attacks.
Throughout May 2023, at least 100 people were killed in various communities of Benue State. Between May 15- 17, 2023, more than 100 people were killed in the Mangu region of Plateau State. And in Southern Kaduna, over 100 people were killed by gunmen between December 2022 and April 2023.
Back on Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, one of Christianity’s holiest days, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria, was attacked by terrorists. The heinous assault resulted in the deaths and injury of more than 50 persons, including young children. In December 2020, the Olufon of Ifon, Ondo State. Oba Adegoke Adeusi was abducted and brutally murdered by ethno- religious terrorists following a meeting of Ondo State Obas, in Akure. These are not isolated incidents.
And whilst section 175 ( 1) ( a), ( b), ( c), ( d), 2 and 3, of the 1999 Constitution, affords the President the discretionary power to grant any person convicted of any offence, a pardon, this surely must be done after consultation with the Council of State ( Nigeria’s equivalent of the UK House of Lords). Likewise, section 212 ( 1) ( a), ( b), ( c) and ( d) of the therein, affords State Governor’s the discretionary power, as distinguished from the right, to exercise the prerogative of mercy in favour of a convicted criminal, albeit subject to the prerequisite consultation with the relevant state advisory council, pursuant to section 212 ( 2) therein. These are not absolute powers!
Closing, punishment must fit the crime. Nigerians must have confidence in the rule of law, and its application; the consistent, effective enforcement of the criminal law to reverse the descent to anarchy, and serve as a deterrent to terrorists; with the central objective of upholding law and order.
Most certainly, pivotal issues of youth unemployment, functional education, entrepreneurialskills- acquisition, social welfare programmes need nuanced development and execution, nationwide, ditto, rehabilitative justice, following punishment.
Nevertheless, the policy of “repentant” terrorists, is a gross disservice to the rule of law and overriding objectives of justice for victims of terrorism and truly- gallant Nigerian armed forces personnel.