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
- 1,104
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 1,104 news items on Nigeria, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- 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
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An Upper Shariah Court in Nigeria ruled that Amina...
An Upper Shariah Court in Nigeria ruled that Amina Lawal's conviction was invalid because she was already pregnant when Islamic Shariah law was implemented in her home province
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
On Amina Lawal's acquittal, Secretary of Hands Off...
On Amina Lawal's acquittal, Secretary of Hands Off Cain, Sergio D'Elia declared: "Amina Lawal was acquitted, according to the judges, due to the conviction being void as she was already pregnant when Islamic law came into effect in her state, as reported
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Governments in Europe and Africa as well as rights...
Governments in Europe and Africa as well as rights groups and Islamic scholars on welcomed a decision by a Nigerian court to acquit Amina Lawal
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
AN APPEALS COURT HAS ACQUITTED AMINA, SENTENCED TO DEATH BY STONING FOR ADULTERY
September 25, 2003: the Shariah Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that Amina Lawal´s conviction was invalid because she was already pregnant when harsh Islamic Shariah law was implemented in her home province.
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Jibrin Babaji, a 43 year old Nigerian man, was sentenced...
Jibrin Babaji, a 43 year old Nigerian man, was sentenced to death by stoning by a Sharia court in the northern Bauchi State for sleeping with three boys
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court in Abuja, Nigeria, upheld a death...
The Supreme Court in Abuja, Nigeria, upheld a death sentence passed on Andrew Nwachukwu in November 1999
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Sheik Isa Waziri, renowned Islamic scholar and chairman...
Sheik Isa Waziri, renowned Islamic scholar and chairman of the Kano State Sharia Implementation Advisory Committee, said that the provision of capital punishment would reduce the tendency for committing crimes in the society
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Lagos states Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, worried by...
Lagos states Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, worried by the incessant cultist clashes in the state's tertiary institutions, particularly Lagos State University, disclosed the introduction of capital punishment to any student cultist apprehended
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Muslim Right Congress warned that the proposed...
The Muslim Right Congress warned that the proposed abolition of death penalty was aimed at allowing the killers of the former Attorney - General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige to escape the hangman's noose
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
"The subject of capital punishment is controversial...
"The subject of capital punishment is controversial and emotional," wrote Gabriel Osu in the Vanguard, "it is no longer considered as an appropriate form of punishment for murder or other serious crimes because it continues the cycle of violence; it is no
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2003NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian Abdul Hafid Ouari, convicted of smuggling...
Nigerian Abdul Hafid Ouari, convicted of smuggling cocaine into Saudi Arabia, was publicly beheaded in the Saudi city of Jeddah