Nigeria
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Code...
- News items in the archive
- 1,117
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Nigeria is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 1,117 news items on Nigeria, from 1999 to today.
In Nigeria the death penalty is provided for by the penal code and, in the northern states applying sharia law, also for offences such as apostasy and adultery. The methods provided for are hanging and shooting.
Sentences are numerous and death row is crowded, while actual executions are rare and concentrated in short periods. The archive follows sentences, executions and commutations.
Latest news
- APRIL 6, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Central Jakarta Dstrict Court, Indonesia, sentenced...
The Central Jakarta Dstrict Court, Indonesia, sentenced to death Nigerian national Humprey Ijike for possession of heroin
- APRIL 5, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian federal government would start hand down...
The Nigerian federal government would start hand down death sentences to couriers of "hard" drugs and other illicit drugs, Almarun Ribadu, director of the Public Relations Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, warned
- APRIL 1, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria's notoriously aggressive police killed 7,198...
Nigeria's notoriously aggressive police killed 7,198 suspected armed robbers since the start of the year 2000, the force announced at a news conference
- MARCH 24, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria´s Niger State Sharia Appeal Court postponed...
Nigeria´s Niger State Sharia Appeal Court postponed for almost a month the appeal of a young couple of former lovers who were sentenced to be stoned to death
- MARCH 21, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi State, Nigeria, overturned...
The Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi State, Nigeria, overturned the conviction of Jibrin Babaji, a 23-year-old man who had been sentenced to be stoned to death for molesting three young boys
- MARCH 17, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
During his state visit to Nigeria, German President...
During his state visit to Nigeria, German President Johannes Rau criticised the fact that Islamic law was applied in the north of the country
- MARCH 10, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Recent revelation by the Federal Government that 458...
Recent revelation by the Federal Government that 458 condemned men have been in various prisons in some parts of the country, awaiting the hangman for the past 20 years and above, is a sad commentary on our judicial process
- MARCH 6, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Judges at the Tangerang District Court in Indonesia...
Judges at the Tangerang District Court in Indonesia sentenced Nigerian Stephen Rasyaad Akinyemi, 35, to death by firing squad for drug smuggling
- MARCH 1, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria said that it was looking for ways to "decongest"...
Nigeria said that it was looking for ways to "decongest" the death row sections of its jails, where 458 prisoners were awaiting execution, some of them for more than 20 years
- FEBRUARY 18, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
"The death penalty, as a mode of punishment, is contrary...
"The death penalty, as a mode of punishment, is contrary to the contemporary human rights standards and values and, thus, its continued application in Nigeria would downgrade the status of the country among the comity of democratic nation-states that have
- FEBRUARY 11, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), an influential Nigerian...
The Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), an influential Nigerian Islamic body, warned Amnesty International to stop interfering in Islamic religion in the name of human rights campaigns
- FEBRUARY 9, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The use of the death penalty in Nigeria violates women's...
The use of the death penalty in Nigeria violates women's human rights by curbing their right to a fair trial and by exposing them to homicide charges for abortion-related offences, the rights group Amnesty International said in a report
- FEBRUARY 6, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan, Nigeria,...
An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan, Nigeria, sentenced Rasheed Olaiya, 38, to death by hanging after convicting him of killing a five-month old baby
- JANUARY 30, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Ikeja High Court, Nigeria, sentenced to death five...
The Ikeja High Court, Nigeria, sentenced to death five Lagos State secondary school students to death for killing businessman Daniel Obi on February 1, 1995 in the Ajegunle area of the state
- JANUARY 27, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Justice Oduneye of an Ikeja high court in Nigeria,...
Justice Oduneye of an Ikeja high court in Nigeria, sentenced three Igunnuko followers to death by hanging for killing a church leader, Pastor Oluwatosin Olajide on 21 December 1996 during a bloody clash between Igunnuko adherents and members of the Aposto
- JANUARY 13, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A.I. Akpe, head of the Nigerian Prison Service, was...
A.I. Akpe, head of the Nigerian Prison Service, was reported as saying that there were 476 men and 11 women awaiting execution in Nigerian prisons, with some having been on death row for up to 10 years
- JANUARY 12, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Moves by the Nigerian Federal Government to abolish...
Moves by the Nigerian Federal Government to abolish capital punishment were described as a plan to contain the Sharia legal system and to reduce the stem of its spread in the country
- JANUARY 12, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian nationals Michael Titus Igweh and Hillary K
Nigerian nationals Michael Titus Igweh and Hillary K
- JANUARY 6, 2004NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Upper Sharia Court in the Alkalere district of...
The Upper Sharia Court in the Alkalere district of the northern state of Bauchi, Nigeria, sentenced Umar Tori, 45, to death by stoning for having sex with his 15-year-old stepdaughter
- DECEMBER 26, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Chief Mike Ozekhome, a lawyer and human rights activist...
Chief Mike Ozekhome, a lawyer and human rights activist prominent in the pro-democracy struggle until the military left the political centre stage in 1999, joined the national debate on the retention of the death penalty in Nigeria
- NOVEMBER 14, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
"The fact that human nature is fallible makes it inevitable...
"The fact that human nature is fallible makes it inevitable that errors can be committed by the judiciary in convicting an accused," the Nigerian daily, the Vanguard, reported
- NOVEMBER 14, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi...
The Upper Sharia Court in Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state, Nigeria, overturned the adultery conviction of Yunusa Rafinchiyawa, 36, and saved him from being stoned to death
- NOVEMBER 10, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
More than 10,000 rights activists demonstrated in the...
More than 10,000 rights activists demonstrated in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt to mark the eighth anniversary of the execution of writer and campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa, witnesses said
- NOVEMBER 10, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of...
The attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Bauchi State, Mallam Habib Aliyu warned against the abolition of the death penalty in Nigeria saying that any such attempt was an invitation for a military coup
- OCTOBER 24, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Tangerang District Court, Indonesia, sentenced...
The Tangerang District Court, Indonesia, sentenced to death two Nigerian nationals and fined them Rp 500 million (US$58,823) for violating Article 82 of Law No
- OCTOBER 23, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Nigerian court sentenced Ian Millar, a 54 year old...
A Nigerian court sentenced Ian Millar, a 54 year old British businessman, to death by hanging for murdering his 43-year-old partner Anne Marie Gale, on April 12, 2002, in their home in Lagos
- OCTOBER 7, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian Party for Social Democracy (PSD) commended...
The Nigerian Party for Social Democracy (PSD) commended the recent decision to acquit Amina Lawal of her adultery conviction
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Maurizio Turco and Marco Cappato (both Lista Bonino...
Maurizio Turco and Marco Cappato (both Lista Bonino MEPs), together with Ottavio Marzocchi, deposited an interrogation request at the European Parliament aimed at finding out what measures the European Council and the European Commission would take regard
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Australian politicians united in welcoming a Nigerian...
Australian politicians united in welcoming a Nigerian appeal court decision to spare Amina Lawal from death by stoning
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Foreign ministers from the 54-nation Commonwealth "spontaneously...
Foreign ministers from the 54-nation Commonwealth "spontaneously applauded" the decision of a Nigerian appeals court to spare the life of Amina Lawal, sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said