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
- OCTOBER 2, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Lebanese former Finance Minister Georges Corm, said...
Lebanese former Finance Minister Georges Corm, said that the death sentence by stoning passed on Amina Lawal by a Nigerian Sharia Court did not serve the cause of Islam
- OCTOBER 1, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand lawmakers of all parties wrote to Nigeria's...
New Zealand lawmakers of all parties wrote to Nigeria's president urging him to overturn the sentence of death by stoning imposed on a woman for having a child out of wedlock
- OCTOBER 1, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave assurances...
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave assurances that the country's higher appeal courts would quash the death-by-stoning sentences for adultery passed by Islamic courts
- SEPTEMBER 30, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The African National Congress (ANC) called on South...
The African National Congress (ANC) called on South African president Thabo Mbeki to urge his Nigerian counterpart to prevent the execution of Amina Lawal, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery
- SEPTEMBER 29, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Daily Telegraph ran an article on Daniella Laun,...
The Daily Telegraph ran an article on Daniella Laun, Miss England World 2002, and her intentions not to boycott the Miss World contest in Nigeria so as to raise her voice at the event in favour of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stonin
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) appealed to...
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) appealed to the Nigerian government to set aside the ruling of the Sharia Court that sentenced Amina Lawal to death by stoning for having had a baby outside wedlock
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The plight of a mother sentenced to death by stoning...
The plight of a mother sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in Nigeria drew bipartisan condemnation from female MPs in the New South Wales parliament
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Prosecutors urged an Islamic court in northwestern...
Prosecutors urged an Islamic court in northwestern Nigeria to throw out an appeal by a man sentenced to death by stoning for raping a young girl because his insanity claim was untenable
- SEPTEMBER 24, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Former US President Bill Clinton expressed hope that...
Former US President Bill Clinton expressed hope that the Nigerian legal system would find a way of pardoning Amina Lawal
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
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 Afr
- SEPTEMBER 23, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he had expressed...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he had expressed to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo his concern over the case of a mother sentenced to death by stoning for adultery
- 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