InterviewPilot Law

Castration or death, no punishment too harsh for rapists, cultists – Ashaolu

Titus Olasupo Ashaolu (SAN) is a former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Kwara State. In this session with ACTING EDITOR, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM, he talks about his recent appointment as member of the Judicial Service Commission, rampant rape, cultism among other issues. Excerpts:

Since the announcement of your appointment, you have been mostly addressed as chairman of the Kwara State Judicial Service Commission. Can you clarify the situation?

The Judicial Service Commission is a constitutional provision and the Chief Judge, not me is the chairman, I am just a member. The commission comprises of the Chief Judge, the Grand Kadi, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and four others. Two must be lawyers and the other two must be respectable persons in the society. I and Bar Lawal Jimoh fell into the group of lawyers; Salihu Ajibola Ajia and Hon Aliyu Mande belong to the group of respectable persons in the society. I am not the chairman but unfortunately some people don’t know this maybe because they are in the dark about it or my name was being called first during the screening and appointment and they felt I am the chairman. I have corrected those I felt should be corrected.

The commission is an arm of the judiciary and takes care of the appointment, promotion and allowances of staff, judges and magistrates and see to the day to day running of the judiciary. Same thing as we have at the federal level which is the National Judicial Council with the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) as the head. Our appointment is tenured.

There have been lots of complaints about the welfare of judges and judicial workers salaries, what should we expect?

Ours is to better the lot of the judiciary and I will try my best to have a positive impact with suggestion and inputs. There is no friction between the judiciary and bench, and we should know that one cannot be a judge without first being a lawyer.

As a lawyer and politician, how have you been able to deal with the pressure from your appointment?

Even though we have not been sworn-in, people have been coming and making request about appointments, this is normal. It is just to do your best and leave the rest to God because one cannot satisfy everybody. But at the same time, one should also try as much as possible to assist his people and the little you do will matter. One cannot be in isolation, we have friends, acquaintances, relations and political allies who feel you are representing them and so there will be pressure. The last group is another constituency whose demand one cannot even meet, but do your best. I discussed with them and be calm, I can’t make empty promises and I tell them with God, everything is possible. I have been in similar position before as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, it’s the same thing, the pressure is always there. One has to assist people because that will be a legacy and fortunately, that is my own philosophy about life.

Cases of rape and cultism have assumed another dimension with many fatalities. Do we need stiffer laws or what is your view on this?

It’s not that the law is not enough to deal with the menace or that it should be stiffer. But our enforcement agencies must do a lot about it. Once culprit are arrested, they should be taken to court for trial and let the law takes its cause. But when no arrest is made or they slip off the hands of those that arrested them, there is problem. The security agencies have to step up their investigation and bring culprits to court with facts so that it will be difficult to exploit any escape route. The whole thing I think rest in the doorstep of our law enforcement agents. For instance, culpable homicide is punishable with death, but somebody kills and cannot be arrested or is arrested without fact, they will be left to go away. Culprits of cultism always kill and so there should be proper investigation, charged them to court and they get killed also, that is the only thing that should suffice, implement the law to the latter. They cannot just be left roaming about in the street otherwise they continue to commit havoc. The issue is so widely spread now that if care is not taken, it will be out of our hand because primary school children are now into cult. The law enforcement agencies should step-up investigation and arrest with facts and we will get it right.

Should rapist be castrated?

The punishment for rapist if convicted is life imprisonment, but with the way it is getting rampant, I don’t think there is any punishment that is too much for them. It can even be death sentence. They now rape kids, teenagers and even old women and kill their victims in the process. A person who kills after raping cannot be given life imprisonment because the crime already includes raping and culpable homicide punishable with death. There is no law that is too much for them. Even the life imprisonment we are talking about, eventually at times, they get government pardon under the prerogative of mercy and they will be left off the hook.

What is your view on death warrant that governors have refused to sign?

The thing is common now maybe because of the way the world view it now and that is why some governors based on compassion avoid appending their signatures. But some has to do with politics and I don’t think there is any reason why they should not sign, a person who killed must be killed in return, that is it.

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