(THE DAIY TRUST) By Yunus Abdulhamid – A Bishop in the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Diocese of Kubwa, Rt. Rev Duke Akamisoko has thrown his weight behind capital punishment for offenders who are found guilty of murder. He said If capital punishment is Biblical and a form of deterrent to criminals who spread evil in the society. When man is not punished for evil, he does more. We over spiritualize things in Nigeria, he said.
Bishop Akamisoko said this yesterday in Kubwa, Abuja at a press briefing ahead of the Diocese’s second Synod and N5 billion fund raising for its university coming up later in the month.
“The Bible that even gives you the term forgiveness says if you kill there are offenses that you don’t ask for forgiveness. You carry knife, kill somebody and you say you should be forgiven? No! You are not worthy to live. My Bible says you are stoned to death. If you kill somebody by knife, you will not be killed by knife; the Bible says you will be stoned to death. There is no issue of forgiveness there,” he said.
Recently, Amnesty International kicked against the execution of convicted criminals in Edo state, calling on government to remove capital punishment from its laws.
The Anglican Bishop said unless people are punished for their crimes in Nigeria, the country will largely remain the same just as he said professing religion has no correlation with the fortune of a country, citing China, Japan and North Korea as countries that are not very Godly but are successful. He said “the issue of governance is not the Church. It’s the political governance. China doesn’t pray but you see thing working. There is nowhere in the world where a man will is left alone and will not steal money. In China when you steal money, you are punished. It is the punishment that people fear. In Nigeria, people steal money and they are not punished.”
