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
- 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.
- MARCH 17, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Sule Lamido in an...
Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Sule Lamido in an audience with a European Union troika at Abuja rebutted the EU's criticism of the death penalty
- MARCH 17, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini, 35, condemned by an Islamic court...
Safiya Hussaini, 35, condemned by an Islamic court in Sokoto, Nigeria, to be stoned to death while buried up to her waist in sand, claims she was singled out because she is "a woman and poor", an argument that human rights groups have backed
- MARCH 16, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
European Union leaders urged Nigeria to show clemency...
European Union leaders urged Nigeria to show clemency towards a woman sentenced to death by stoning for having sex outside of marriage
- MARCH 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski appealed to...
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski appealed to the Nigerian president to commute the death sentence of Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu
- MARCH 11, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian Army warned that the soldiers will face...
The Nigerian Army warned that the soldiers will face the death penalty if they took part a proposed strike by junior army officers and their counterparts in the police over pay and conditions
- MARCH 11, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
About 10,000 members of the Catholic Church staged...
About 10,000 members of the Catholic Church staged a protest in Enugu Sate after 14 worshippers died at the Government Technical College (GTC) on March 7 after a religious function
- MARCH 7, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Nigerian Catholic archbishop voluntarily offered...
A Nigerian Catholic archbishop voluntarily offered to die in place of a Muslim woman condemned to death by stoning by an Islamic court for the crime of adultery
- FEBRUARY 26, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Sharia court in Dutse, Yobe State sentenced Bello...
A Sharia court in Dutse, Yobe State sentenced Bello Abdulkadir to 80 strokes of the cane for drunkenness
- FEBRUARY 22, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Italy's professional football association organised...
Italy's professional football association organised a protest over plans in Nigeria to stone a woman to death
- FEBRUARY 20, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Recently, the European Parliament passed a resolution...
Recently, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning all forms of religious intolerance 'in particular the northern Nigerian Islamic courts' selective justice that sentenced Safiya Hussaini to death by stoning"
- FEBRUARY 20, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A court in Nigeria's Kebbi State convicted two people...
A court in Nigeria's Kebbi State convicted two people to death by hanging for their involvement in separate robbery cases
- FEBRUARY 19, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo hinted that a...
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo hinted that a woman sentenced to death for having sex outside of marriage would win a reprieve, saying the outcome of her appeal would "gladden hearts"