SERAP petitions Gambia’s AGF over Nigerians on death row

Gambian Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lamin Jobarteh, has been urged to prevail on his country from going ahead with its planned execution of two Nigerians, Micheal Ifunanya and Stanley Agbaeze, condemned to death in Gambia.

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, in a letter by its counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, on behalf of the condemned men, had instituted an action before The ECOWAS Court, asking for a stay of action pending the final determination of the suit filed on September 11, 2012.

SERAP, in a letter to the Gambian AGF, is asking him to stay action pursuant to Article 22 (2) of the Protocol A/P.1/7/91 on the Community Court of Justice, which provides that: “When a dispute is brought before the Court, Member States or Institutions of the Community shall refrain from any action likely to aggravate or militate against its settlement.”

Falana said: “We acknowledge the recent statement by your government that it has decided to suspend further executions of death row prisoners after the unlawful execution of nine prisoners that attracted widespread condemnation.

“However, we are concerned that in the same statement, your government has left opened the possibility of further executions when it said that the suspension was ‘temporary’.”

Challenging the Gambia authorities on its legal obligation to comply with the protocol and not to engage in any action that will prejudice the outcome of the ECOWAS Court suit, Falana said doing the contrary will amount to a fundamental breach of the Article 22 (2) of ECOWAS Protocol.