Sheik Isa Waziri, renowned Islamic scholar and chairman...

Sheik Isa Waziri, renowned Islamic scholar and chairman of the Kano State Sharia Implementation Advisory Committee, said that the provision of capital punishment would reduce the tendency for committing crimes in the society. "Without capital punishment the wicked ones will continue to be wicked, for once they kill, they will live to kill again. Besides, others will be encouraged to be wicked," he said. Shiek Isa Waziri told a crowded press conference in Kano, Nigeria, that abolition of capital punishment would encourage private vengeance by the aggrieved. He said that that more than one life would be lost in revenge for a murder but that with the death penalty it would be a life for a life. The Sharia committee chairman said that the Nigerian constitution sanctioned the right of every citizen to a religion of his or her choice, and this right could not be denied by an executive fiat. "If the democratic process is to be respected, then it should be on record that the Muslims of this country are unequivocally opposed to the abrogation of the death penalty because doing so is tantamount to denying them the right to practice Islam and the undiluted observance of its fundamental law, the Sharia," he stated.