Abdulfattah Olajide, Abdul-Rahman Abubakar and Turaki A. Hassan
24 June 2009
Death penalty is an integral part of the nation's penal laws and it will continue to be applied in accordance with the rule of law, President Umaru Musa Yar'adua said yesterday in Abuja.
President Yar'adua made the remark while responding to a question from a Spanish journalist on the entourage of visiting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, at a joint press briefing by the two leaders at the State House. The Spanish journalist had sought to know his views on death penalty.
President Yar'adua noted that death penalty is just one of the penalties being implemented in accordance with the nation's laws, arguing that since every society is governed by laws, whatever penalty specified by the law for any crime is final.
"All penalties are based on laws, not only death penalty. Where the laws specify any punishment then it must be obeyed, not only death penalty. That is a straight forward issue; societies should be governed by laws," he said.
Also speaking, President Zapatero said the non- inclusion of any African country on the Permanent Seat of the United Nations Security Council is injustice that must be redressed. He argued that Nigeria deserves the seat.
The Spanish leader said: "We have talked about the international order, we have talked about peace, we have talked about security, we have talked about it from an African and worldwide perspective. Spain of course has peacekeeping operations in Africa and of course in other places, Nigeria for example participates as well in UN peacekeeping operations, it is a great contributor. This brings me to what the Nigerian President said and I think is very important thing. We have talked about security, the reform of the Security Council in the UN, President Yar'adua said 30 per cent of all the matters that the UN Security Council deals with in its steady works concerns Africa but nevertheless no African country is represented in the UN Security Council. That is a reality that has to change, it needs to change. Nigeria plays a role of leadership and Spain will be working for the change in Security Council to address this injustice that does not represent what Nigeria does and the way it is in the continent."
Zapatero said his discussions with his Nigerian counterpart centred on issues like infrastructure, oil and gas, peace and security. Zapatero who is the first Spanish head of government to visit the country had earlier on Monday participated in a summit with the ECOWAS heads of government.
He said his country intends to stem illegal emigration into Spain by Africans who have to go through tedious and dangerous means to get into Spain, through cooperation and development.
He said his visit to Nigeria "means that we have interest to work in West Africa with West Africa in other to develop and to open up areas for us to work together and cooperate in the future
Senate President David Mark yesterday while receiving Zapatero at the National Assembly said Nigeria deserves a permanent seat in the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
Mark said the country's quest for a permanent UN Security Council seat is legitimate and deserves the support of the international community.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
One would hope that the president is not talking about sharia law during his joint press conferernce with the president of spain.If that is the case, he needs to be reminded, that Nigeria is a secular Nation and he should not impose sharia law on the people of Nigeria as he craves to appease his own religion.In a Country that is truely secular, at least last time One checked, no one religion gains upperhand than the other they should be on equal level.May be the president,should come out and make his point clear to the Nigerian people following his press conferernce.In Nigeria, we believe in the rule of law if it is applied equally and not to create kangoro law to punish certain segment of our society inorder to score a political and religious points.For Nigerians to truely understand you and the so called rule of law as mentioned,it is important that we know how many political figtures are being put in prison for mismanagement of funds mostly the past governors of Niger Delta, Abia,Anambra,and host of Northern Governors,senators,members of the House,ministers the lists go on.If none of these people or all of these people are walking on our streets today,where is the beef[where is the rule of law this adminstration makes noise about or is this a coverup so to speak?Justice delayed is justice denied to the people of this Nation[Nigeria].We need justice and one hopes that these people mentioned, call for justice too.