Following a Yola High Court judgement on June 11, 2018 to sentence five men to death by hanging, the Supreme Council of Bishops, also known as World Council of Bishops, has written President Muhammadu Buhari.
The men from Kodomun in Demsa council area of the state, according to the Judge, would face the hangman for murdering a herder in retaliation to the several killings in the area.
The letter, dated June 13, 2018 from the World Episcopal Headquarters in Texas, U.S., was titled “Special request for presidential pardon: Killing by hanging of five young men,” and signed by founding Primate, Abuja, Nigeria, Archbishop (Dr.) P. Sunday; Ecclesiastical Prelate Administrator, Houston, Texas, United State, Archbishop (Dr.) H. Parker; Apostolic Nuncio and Prelate to Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, Bishop (Dr.) J. Onyegbulem; and Ecclesiastical Prelate to West Africa, Niamey, Niger Republic, Bishop (Dr.) J. Hussein.
The bishops said “till date no adequate justice had been meted out on them commensurate to the lives and property lost.” It therefore “totally condemns and disapproves vehemently the death sentence passed on the five young men on Monday, June 11, 2018 by a court of competent jurisdiction in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria accused and charged for killing a herdsman.”
They added “what our nation Nigeria sues for now in our nascent democracy is peace and tranquility, and not otherwise.”
