As indications are rife that Western creditor-nations...

As indications are rife that Western creditor-nations might withdraw their support for Nigeria's debt relief effort over the confirmation of the death sentence on Amina Lawal by a Katsina State Sharia Court of Appeal for adultery, the President of the African Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor, said that the two issues had no connection whatsoever and should not be linked.
Ugolor said his statement was prompted by a letter faxed to him by British Parliament's All Party Group on Third World Debt chairperson Hon. Julia Drown, wherein she expressed grave fears that Nigeria's debt relief efforts could suffer a major setback if Amina Lawal was executed.
Drown stressed that an increasing number of influential interests in Europe were anxious about Nigeria's human rights record, consequent upon the introduction of the Sharia penal code in some Northern Nigerian states, pointing out that the new penal practices were neither in consonance with the Nigerian constitution nor existing international human rights principles.
Ugolor argued that while every right thinking and law-abiding citizen in Nigeria would contribute to get the noose off the neck of Amina Lawal, it was improper for the Western world to begin to link her case with Nigeria's quest for debt relief.
The ANEEJ president blamed the new controversy on "some military apologists in Northern Nigeria trying to use the issue of Sharia as a tool to blackmail Obasanjo."