Former Vice Chancellor, University of Ado-Ekiti, Professor Akin Oyebode yesterday recommended that corrupt public officials should face the death penalty as it is the case in China.
According to him, until Nigeria adopt stiffer penalty for the offence of corruption the problem will continue unabated.
The Professor of Law, who was speaking yesterday at the Human Right Summit organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos branch, said Nigeria should adopt Chinese method adding that those found guilty of stealing public resources should be executed by firing squad.
Oyebode, who presently lectures International Law and Jurisprudence at the University of Lagos, stated this in his keynote address at the event titled: ‘’Towards Combating Corruption and the Protection of Human Rights’’.
He added that emulating the Chinese attitude to corruption or borrowing from the examples of Hong Kong or Singapore would have ensured greater success in the nation’s anti-corruption war.
He described as worrisome that successive Chief Justices of Nigeria have had to bemoan the fact that judges themselves are not immune to corruption virus saying ‘’if the physicians cannot heal themselves, it would be no exaggeration to declare that in Nigeria, the war against corruption could well be dead on arrival’’.
He said: ‘’Perhaps if Nigeria had overhauled its substantive and adjectival laws on corruption by opting for the inquisitorial instead of the adversary and accusatorial approach.
He said the nation cannot continue to embrace the ‘’nuances of our inherited procedural jurisprudence and hope to succeed in creating a new Nigeria.
Oyebode added that corruption is a Damocles’ sword dangling on Nigeria’s throat warning that for the nation to survive, it must engender a novel attitude to contain the scourge.
According to Oyebode, to the extent that corruption entails misappropriation of public resources by private persons, it can be said that corruption constitutes a gross violation of collective rights of members of the community.
He urged lawyers to be active in the fight against corruption and be ready to defend the less privileged without demanding for fees.
In her speech, the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Funmilayo Atilade stressed the need for the Bar and the Bench to work together and ensure that corruption cases are speedily tried.
Represented by Justice Morenike Obadina, the CJ however cautioned that ‘’in the fight against corruption and other economic crimes and in the bid to ensure that there is speedy trial, the rights of suspects must be protected by the court’’.
In his opening remarks, the chairman f the occasion, Mr. Olasupo Shasore (SAN) said human rights would only be protected in a country where there is rule of law.
He urged participants to make the summit interactive and be willing to implement salient points.
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