PRESIDENT OBASANJO SUPPORTS ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY

President Obasanjo said that he was committed to fighting to save lives and would continue the campaign "here in our country and internationally."
"For me, the most sacred thing in life is life and none of us has the right to take what is so sacred. I am not against punishment but it should not be terminal," Obasanjo told members of the non-governmental organisation led by a member of the Italian Parliament, Roberto Giachetti.
He added that "Some of the mistakes we make in life can be corrected but the mistake of taking life cannot be corrected. We can never be absolutely certain that a death sentence is fair and taking one life never brings back another. If it is to serve as deterrent, taking life, in history, has never really served as a deterrent."
Members of the delegation – including European MP Benedetto Della Vedova, HOC General Secretary Sergio D’Elia and Moratorium Campaign Co-ordinator Elisabetta Zamparutti - were received at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.
HOC, an international organisation of citizens and parliamentarians against the death penalty, informed President Obasanjo that it had dedicated its current annual report on the death penalty worldwide to him in recognition of his contributions to the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty.
HOC also expressed its support of the Federal Government’s efforts to develop democratic processes and the respect of human rights in the country, in opposition to the political use and implementation of Sharia law in some of its northern states.
Nigeria’s Minister for Women’s Affairs and Youth development Aishatu Ismail was also present during this meeting.
First Lady Stella Obasanjo, in another meeting with the HOC delegation, signed the appeal for a UN moratorium on executions and against the female genital mutilation.
HOC also met several Senators who expressed different stands with regard the death penalty. Deputy Senate President Ibrahim N. Mantu expressed his support of a UN moratorium on executions. The Archbishop of Abuja J. O. Onainekan also signed the international appeal for a resolution for a universal moratorium on capital executions that HOC is planning to present at the next UN General Assembly, which coincides with Italy´s presidency of the European Union in the second semester of 2003.
HOC has been campaigning for a United Nations moratorium on executions since 1993 in the belief that such a moratorium would give all countries still applying the death penalty an opportunity to review their stand on capital punishment.
HOC and the Transnational Radical Party are also running a campaign in favour of participation in the Miss World Beauty contest due to be held in Abuja on December 7 to protest against the death-by-stoning sentence given to Amina Lawal, a 31-year-old Nigerian mother condemned for having a child out of wedlock, who is currently appealing her sentence.
Contestants from Sweden, Italy, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Hungary have so far adhered to HOC’s appeal.