Are you keen on a job? Do you have a killer instinct? If you do, then this job suits you! It even gives you the legal authority to loop a noose round the neck of fellow human beings, and snuff life out of them.

•Photo: Sun News Publishing

More Stories on This Section advertisement

As with James Bond in the epic series - 007 - you are licensed to kill. Here, the people who do this kind of job are called Hangmen! That’s the type available right now. The pay, it has been touted, is “good”, but it requires guts, courage and boldness. Beyond that, however, you have to possess a degree in Criminology.

Around the country’s prisons formations right now, there is a dearth of Hangmen - professional executioners, that is. Which explains why there are hundreds of condemned criminals awaiting execution at the moment.

Only last week, 27 of such men on death row in kiri-kiri Maximum Prison alone, dragged both the Lagos State and Federal Governments to court challenging the constitutionality of keeping them in the gallows for periods ranging from 10 to 24 years. No date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

But if you ever imagined that most Nigerians would shrug their shoulders over the suggestion of taking a job at the gallows, here is a shocker. Sunday Sun learnt at the weekend that there has been a deluge of applications by Nigerians who have suffered unemployment for years.

Justifying the need to hire more executioners, a source said: “The Service is in dire need of the services of Hangmen. Right now, there are about four hangmen in the country. Their services are needed now, more than ever before. Imagine how many condemned criminals are in the cells as we speak, so they are needed.”

Although the job is usually reserved for serving prisons officials, Sunday Sun however learnt that somehow, outsiders got wind of the vacancies, and are already showing interest in the job; even lobbying to be hired.

Ideal situation

A source revealed that Hangmen are usually serving Prisons officials, who double as executioners. They are never publicly acknowledged in the latter category. Nonetheless, they are believed to be “well remunerated”.

The veil over their identities, a source suggested, is to protect them from odium and public ridicule.

“Yes, they are our colleagues, but I can’t honestly point at one person and say, ‘this officer is a Hangman’. We do not know their identities. So you might just be sitting and chatting with a colleague without knowing that he is a Hangman. That’s the way it is,” the source said.

Confirming what the source told Sunday Sun, the Prisons Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, CSP Ope Fatinikun said the Hangmen issue is an in-house matter, which must not be revealed to outsiders, even among their colleagues. He further said, any prison warder could be appointed a hangman because it is part of their training.

The PRO said the identities of hangmen are usually kept under wrap. They are only summoned to the gallows when there is an ‘assignment’ to be done. Even then, they usually wear masks.

What is curious, however, is the criterion attached to the job: They must be graduates of Criminology.

Psychiatrist’s opinion

So why would anybody want to do the job of a Hangman?

A Principal Clinical Psychologist, Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Mr. Ajirotutu Omotayo, said: “a hangman must be a hard-hearted person who does not have emotions for human lives nor have value for live. Such a person must be someone who takes decisions without looking back; thinking that the convict must have killed unlawfully, therefore killing him lawfully is no sin.”

Mr. Omotayo further argued that for any person to do the job of a hangman, he must have gone through a period of apprenticeship, understudying other, adding that they must take a thorough counseling and psychological therapy.

Nonetheless, he said, “no matter how fat their salary, the psychological effects are bound to be there, which varies from one person to another.”

Considering the unemployment situation in the country, who, in fact, would agree to be a Hangman?

Ordinarily, this is not the type of job, as Sunday Sun found out, that most people would be proud of. Which explains why, those who bought the idea, declined to have their names in print, let alone give out their photographs. Conversely, those who expressed disdain for the job had no inhibition whatsoever giving out either their names or photograph.