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 24, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The General Secretariat for Equality asked that Greece...
The General Secretariat for Equality asked that Greece officially intervene in the case of a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery by a Muslim sharia court in Nigeria
- APRIL 17, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The European Parliament urged the Nigerian Federal...
The European Parliament urged the Nigerian Federal Government to ensure that law courts act in accordance with international law on human rights and the declaration of rights included in Nigeria's Constitution
- APRIL 13, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Radical Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky,...
Radical Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, accused governors of states in the North that have adopted the Islamic legal code, Sharia, of using it selfishly
- APRIL 10, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International called on the governor of Anambra...
Amnesty International called on the governor of Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria, to end human rights abuses committed by its "crime busting" unit, the so-called Bakassi Boys
- APRIL 4, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Amina Lawal, a 30-year-old Nigerian woman condemned...
Amina Lawal, a 30-year-old Nigerian woman condemned to die by stoning for adultery, has filed an appeal against her sentence
- MARCH 30, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian Army said that it has no place for trade...
The Nigerian Army said that it has no place for trade unionism and that it is impossible for its soldiers to go on strike since such an action would be viewed as a mutiny, which carries the death penalty
- MARCH 29, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Police in Nigeria's Enugu state arrested the Divisional...
Police in Nigeria's Enugu state arrested the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Nsukka and seven of his men over the alleged murder of Nnaemeka Ugwoke and Izuchukwu Ayogu, both former students of Nsukka high school
- MARCH 29, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo lauded the verdict...
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo lauded the verdict of the Sharia Appeal Court in Sokoto which overturned the death sentence passed on Safiya Tungar-Tudu by a lower sharia court in October 2001for committing adultery
- MARCH 28, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The European Union (EU) welcomed the acquittal of Safiya...
The European Union (EU) welcomed the acquittal of Safiya Hussaini by the Sokoto Sharia Court of Appeal
- MARCH 28, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The European Union (EU) welcomed the acquittal of Safiya...
The European Union (EU) welcomed the acquittal of Safiya Hussaini by the Sokoto Sharia Court of Appeal
- MARCH 26, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
In Nigeria, the acquittal of Safiya Hussaini, the woman...
In Nigeria, the acquittal of Safiya Hussaini, the woman who had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, was welcomed with a tremendous joy except among the supporters of strict enforcement of shari'ah, the Islamic law
- MARCH 26, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
International Human Rights Watch urged Nigerian government...
International Human Rights Watch urged Nigerian government authorities to ensure that courts refrain from sentencing people to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments that are prohibited by international law
- MARCH 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Nigerian Sharia court freed a mother of five who...
A Nigerian Sharia court freed a mother of five who had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in a judgement by a lower Muslim court in October 2001 that sparked international outrage
- MARCH 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State ruled out any...
Governor Ahmed Sani of Zamfara State ruled out any further dialogue on the implementation of the shari'ah legal system in the state
- MARCH 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation...
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is deeply concerned by the sentencing to death by stoning of 35 year-old Amina Lawal
- MARCH 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian officials said a second woman has been sentenced...
Nigerian officials said a second woman has been sentenced to death by stoning by a sharia court for adultery
- MARCH 25, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
In response to the ruling reversing Safiya Hussaini...
In response to the ruling reversing Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu's death sentence the governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa, attacked the European Union and various women's rights groups for their criticism of the Islamic court
- MARCH 24, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International welcomed the Nigerian federal...
Amnesty International welcomed the Nigerian federal justice minister Godwin Agabi's move advising all 12 northern states that any court "which imposes discriminatory punishment is deliberately flouting the constitution
- MARCH 24, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Olubunmi...
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, appealed to the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto that has reintroduced strict Islamic law not to carry out the sentence of death by stoning that it has imposed on a 35-year-old woman for adultery
- MARCH 24, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Hajiya Aisha Ismail, Nigeria's minister of women's...
Hajiya Aisha Ismail, Nigeria's minister of women's affairs, expressed confidence that a woman convicted of adultery and condemned to be stoned to death by an Islamic court would be acquitted
- MARCH 22, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The governor of a northern Nigerian state which enforces...
The governor of a northern Nigerian state which enforces Sharia law has defended Islamic punishments after they were criticised by the federal government
- MARCH 22, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A motion of support to Safiya Hussaini was taken by...
A motion of support to Safiya Hussaini was taken by women parliamentarians present at the 107th Inter-Parliamentary Union in Rabat, Morocco
- MARCH 22, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Amid mounting international pressure to spare the Nigerian...
Amid mounting international pressure to spare the Nigerian woman Safiya Hussaini, from death by stoning, Amnesty International presented 300,000 more signatures condemning her sentence to the Nigerian Embassy in Madrid
- MARCH 21, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian federal government ruled that strict Islamic...
The Nigerian federal government ruled that strict Islamic law, or Sharia, which has been adopted as the law of the land in 12 Muslim-majority northern states, is unconstitutional
- MARCH 21, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Godwin Agabi, the justice minister, declared that any...
Godwin Agabi, the justice minister, declared that any court "which imposes discriminatory punishment is deliberately flouting the constitution"
- MARCH 20, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian human rights activists and lawyers say they...
Nigerian human rights activists and lawyers say they are cautiously optimistic an Islamic appeals court will reverse a sentence of death by stoning passed on a Muslim mother convicted of adultery
- MARCH 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Human rights activists in Nigeria said they are confident...
Human rights activists in Nigeria said they are confident the sharia judges will not be able to ignore the international appeals for clemency for Safiya Hussaini, who was condemned to death for adultery by an Islamic court
- MARCH 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Lawyers familiar with the Islamic legal system in Sokoto...
Lawyers familiar with the Islamic legal system in Sokoto told AFP that there were three possible scenarios for the outcome of Safiya Hussaini's appeal at the Shari'a appellate court in Sokoto
- MARCH 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini's appeal against death by stoning for...
Safiya Hussaini's appeal against death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock was postponed to March 25 by the Sharia court in the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto
- MARCH 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
NIGERIA SHARIA COURT POSTPONES SAFIYA’S APPEAL
March 18, 2002: Safiya Hussaini’s appeal against death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock was postponed to March 25 by the Sharia court in the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto.