Jail break: Adegboruwa kicks against extra-judicial killing of inmates

Human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), has reacted to Sunday’s gunmen attack on the Jos Correctional facility.

Recall that the Jos Prison, Sunday evening, came under attack as gunmen, who pretended to be on a visit to the facility engaged the officials in a shootout at the gate, in order to gain access into the facility.

Adegboruwa, in a statement he personally signed on Tuesday, while condemning the attack and sympathizing with the families of those who lost their lives in defending the nation, however, kicked at the murder of, at least eight of the inmates, who were trying to take undue advantage of the opportunity of the attack to escape.

Adegboruwa, while cautioning the Nigerian government on the right to life, said “no one should be killed extra-judicially except in accordance with a process sanctioned by law”.

“At least, eight of the inmates were killed while trying to escape. The Commandant said in an interview that “they were gunned down while fleeing.” The inmates were not the ones that attacked the facility but were most probably trying to take undue advantage of the opportunity of the attack to escape. That should not warrant their death.

“The right to life is sacrosanct, both on the part of the warders and also the inmates. No one should be killed extra-judicially except and in accordance with a process sanctioned by law,” he said.

The lawyer noted that “if some unarmed inmates were fleeing to escape, the appropriate thing would be to stop their advancement through the use of minimal force, certainly not to kill them for attempting to escape.”

Adegboruwa while nothing that there have been too many cases of extra-judicial killings, especially in places like the South East where people were reported to be missing almost on daily basis, however, urged President Buhari to get all security agencies to respect the rights of citizens and to embrace appropriate rules of engagement in dealing with crisis situations.