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
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
If Amina Lawal is to die, so will the 2002 Miss World...
If Amina Lawal is to die, so will the 2002 Miss World beauty pageant
- SEPTEMBER 20, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)...
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) decried the effect of the Sharia legal code introduced in some Northern states of the country, saying that the implementation of Sharia was particularly unfavourable to women
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
South Africa was totally opposed to the death by stoning...
South Africa was totally opposed to the death by stoning sentence imposed on a Nigerian woman but an Islamic Court, but the issue should be seen in the broader Nigerian context, President Thabo Mbeki said in reply to Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon d
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Prosecutors asked an Islamic court for more time to...
Prosecutors asked an Islamic court for more time to prepare the case against a Nigerian man appealing on grounds of insanity against being stoned to death for raping a young girl
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Australian Federal Opposition joined global calls...
The Australian Federal Opposition joined global calls for a boycott of the Miss World Pageant in Nigeria amid outrage over the planned stoning of a woman accused of adultery
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions joined Prime...
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions joined Prime Minister Helen Clark, Green MP Sue Kedgley and the YWCA in voicing concerns about New Zealand's involvement in the Miss World pageant despite reassurances from the Nigerian Government that the decision
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
South African groups urged the boycott of the Miss...
South African groups urged the boycott of the Miss World contest due to be held in Nigeria in November
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian Government said it is totally opposed...
The Nigerian Government said it is totally opposed to the stoning of a woman found guilty of adultery
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand Green Party MP Sue Kedgley added her voice...
New Zealand Green Party MP Sue Kedgley added her voice to a call for Miss New Zealand organisers to boycott the Miss World pageant in Nigeria over a woman being sentenced to death by stoning
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Over 30 international Kolping Society women delegates...
Over 30 international Kolping Society women delegates asked the UN to intervene and stop the stoning to death of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman sentenced to death under the Sharia law for bearing a child out of wedlock
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend...
It is not a "good look" for Miss New Zealand to attend the Miss World pageant in Nigeria while a woman there faces death by stoning, Prime Minister Helen Clark said
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Governor Ahmed Sani of Nigeria's northern state of...
Governor Ahmed Sani of Nigeria's northern state of Zamfara, who pioneered the introduction of the Sharia Islamic legal code in the country, downplayed Italy's recent honour of a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death for adultery
- SEPTEMBER 15, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The New Zealand YWCA [Young Women's Christian Association]...
The New Zealand YWCA [Young Women's Christian Association] called for 17-year-old Miss New Zealand Rachel Heujich to join five other countries in boycotting the Miss World pageant in Nigeria because a woman was sentenced to death by stoning there in Augus
- SEPTEMBER 15, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
President Olusegun Obasanjo was called upon by Catholic...
President Olusegun Obasanjo was called upon by Catholic Bishops in the country in a communiqué signed by Most Rev
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Organisers of the Miss World beauty pageant asked the...
Organisers of the Miss World beauty pageant asked the Nigerian Government not to carry out the death sentence of Amina Lawal, a single mother condemned to stoning
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian government pledged that no woman would...
The Nigerian government pledged that no woman would be sentenced to death by stoning under the country's laws
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Organisers of the Miss World beauty pageant asked the...
Organisers of the Miss World beauty pageant asked the Nigerian Government not to carry out the death sentence of Amina Lawal, a single mother condemned to stoning
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative...
Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) appealed the death sentence passed on Amina Lawal by a Katsina Sharia Court, for having a child out of wedlock
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Miss World organisers asked Nigeria for an assurance...
The Miss World organisers asked Nigeria for an assurance that a woman sentenced to death by stoning for having sex outside marriage will be spared
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities...
The Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities of the European Parliament today called for Miss World contestants to withdraw from the pageant in protest of the Sharia death sentence passed by host country Nigeria on a woman convicted of adultery
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The EU Parliament committee on women's rights voted...
The EU Parliament committee on women's rights voted unanimously in favor of the boycott of Miss World pageant to protest a death sentence given to a woman there for having sex outside of marriage
- SEPTEMBER 11, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The EU Parliament committee on women's rights voted...
The EU Parliament committee on women's rights voted unanimously in favor of the boycott of Miss World pageant to protest a death sentence given to a woman there for having sex outside of marriage
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido has added to...
Nigerian Foreign Minister Sule Lamido has added to the controversy over the Islamic legal code, Sharia, being practised in parts of the country by describing the law as "competent and right"
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini, the Nigerian woman sentenced to death...
Safiya Hussaini, the Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in Nigeria, and saved in part by worldwide mobilisation in her favour, has become a citizen of Rome
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Rome conferred honorary citizenship on a Nigerian woman...
Rome conferred honorary citizenship on a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court but acquitted on appeal after an international outcry
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria condemned the honorary...
Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria condemned the honorary citizenship conferred on Safiya Hussaini by the Rome city council, and accused Italian leaders of seeking to convert her to Christianity
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Rome city council said that Safiya was a "symbol...
The Rome city council said that Safiya was a "symbol of our commitment to fighting the inequality of women and defending human rights around the world
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Following an international outcry against harsh sentences...
Following an international outcry against harsh sentences passed by Sharia courts in Nigeria, particularly on the Amina Lawal and Safiya cases, a prominent Islamic group in the North, the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) declared that the implementation of the
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Dalhatu Bafarawa,...
The Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Dalhatu Bafarawa, said that he would write a letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo, asking him to explain why the Federal Government issued a passport to Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu to enable her attend a ceremony in Rome
- SEPTEMBER 8, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria's Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) has asked...
Nigeria's Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) has asked for the intervention of the Federal Government to save Amina Lawal from being stoned to death