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 12, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Federal Government expressed reservations about...
The Federal Government expressed reservations about the European Union's concern over the death penalty for some offences in Nigeria
- FEBRUARY 8, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Imam of Muslim inmates at the Federal Prisons in...
The Imam of Muslim inmates at the Federal Prisons in Awka, Anambra State, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullahi Anadu, awarded a scholarship to Adama, the daughter of the alleged Sokoto adulteress, Safiya Hussaini Tungar Tudu
- FEBRUARY 6, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Italian Equal Opportunities Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo...
Italian Equal Opportunities Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo said the time had come for the European Union to stop women being stoned to death in some Arab countries
- JANUARY 28, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Council of Islam in Nigeria warned the...
The Supreme Council of Islam in Nigeria warned the National Assembly not to pass into law a bill currently before the House of Representatives seeking to adopt as part of Nigeria's laws, certain aspects of the United Nations (UN) convention which the coun
- JANUARY 23, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Sokoto [northern Nigeria] Upper Shari'ah Court ordered...
A Sokoto [northern Nigeria] Upper Shari'ah Court ordered the amputation of the right hand of a middle-aged man, Bello Garba for stealing a donkey valued at 2,500 naira [21dollars]
- JANUARY 23, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A sharia court in Nigeria acquitted an 18-year-old...
A sharia court in Nigeria acquitted an 18-year-old mother of adultery in a ruling that could save other Muslims from being stoned to death on similar charges, her lawyer said
- JANUARY 21, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An 18-year-old Muslim who could face death if convicted...
An 18-year-old Muslim who could face death if convicted of adultery in northern Nigeria was released on bail after spending five weeks in jail with her new-born daughter, her lawyer said
- JANUARY 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigerian junior Justice Minister Musa Elayo Abdullahi...
Nigerian junior Justice Minister Musa Elayo Abdullahi said that Nigeria cannot intervene in a legal appeal to save the life of a mother sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery by one of the country's Islamic courts
- JANUARY 18, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Council of Shari'ah in Nigeria said the...
The Supreme Council of Shari'ah in Nigeria said the council's immediate target is to work for the implementation of shari'ah legal system in Kwara and Oyo States
- JANUARY 17, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian embassy in Bangkok confirmed the execution...
The Nigerian embassy in Bangkok confirmed the execution of five Nigerians by firing squad in Bangwang, Thailand, for drug trafficking
- JANUARY 15, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The lawyer for an 18-year-old Muslim who could face...
The lawyer for an 18-year-old Muslim who could face death if she is convicted of adultery in northern Nigeria said she is being held in jail with her newborn daughter
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Husseini is to appeal her sentence of death today
Safiya Husseini is to appeal her sentence of death today
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An Islamic court in northern Nigeria postponed an appeal...
An Islamic court in northern Nigeria postponed an appeal hearing on behalf of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for the crime of adultery
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The judges of Sharia Court of Appeal, Sokoto, were...
The judges of Sharia Court of Appeal, Sokoto, were called upon to disregard the sentence to death by stoning passed on Malama Safiya Hussaini by the Upper Sharia Court, Gwadabawa, for it's failure to abide by Islamic law
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini won a temporary reprieve from death...
Safiya Hussaini won a temporary reprieve from death by stoning for adultery under Islamic sharia law
- JANUARY 13, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A group of European parliamentarians sent an urgent...
A group of European parliamentarians sent an urgent appeal to safe Safiya Hussaini, the woman who risks stoning in Nigeria
- JANUARY 12, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria's embassy in Athens told a protest delegation...
Nigeria's embassy in Athens told a protest delegation that a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning in the African country would be spared, Soula Panaretou, a member of the Coalition of the Left and Progress, said
- JANUARY 12, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Greek Socialist, Anna Karamanou, and around sixty other...
Greek Socialist, Anna Karamanou, and around sixty other MEPs wrote to the Nigerian Ambassador to the EU, Mr Akunwafor, demanding that the execution of Safiya Husaini Tungar-Tudu by stoning, for having committed adultery, is not carried out
- JANUARY 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Vandalising the abandoned Shell oil pipelines in Nigeria...
Vandalising the abandoned Shell oil pipelines in Nigeria carries the death penalty
- JANUARY 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Hands Off Cain adhered to the demonstration for Safiya...
Hands Off Cain adhered to the demonstration for Safiya Husseini, a Nigerian woman condemned to death by stoning for adultery by an Islamic court, organised by the Rai Radio programme Zapping, presented by Aldo Forbice
- JANUARY 7, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Prison officials in Nigeria's Katsina state remained...
Prison officials in Nigeria's Katsina state remained tight lipped about why Sani Yakubu Rodi was executed by hanging instead of by machete as his sentence stipulated
- JANUARY 3, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A convicted murderer was hanged in northern Nigeria...
A convicted murderer was hanged in northern Nigeria in the country's first execution under Muslim sharia law, which has sparked riots in the West African country
- JANUARY 3, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Chief Imam of Badagry, Lagos, Alhaji Imam Muslim...
The Chief Imam of Badagry, Lagos, Alhaji Imam Muslim Olayide Huthman, speaking on the death sentence passed on Safiya Hussaini for adultery [October 2001], advised the Sokoto state government to drop the charge if they cannot get the second person
- JANUARY 1, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Code...
The death penalty is provided for by the Criminal Code and the legislation on civil disturbances for armed robbery, murder, treason, and offenses against the State
- JANUARY 1, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
"We want Sharia, the best of all the laws"
"We want Sharia, the best of all the laws" is scrawled in brown letters along the walls of the building where our meeting with the state authorities was held
- DECEMBER 27, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Sani Yakubu, also known as Sani Rodi, failed to appeal...
Sani Yakubu, also known as Sani Rodi, failed to appeal against the death sentence passed on him by the Katsina State Sharia court
- DECEMBER 26, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Some 3,000 people held a vigil at the Nigerian Embassy...
Some 3,000 people held a vigil at the Nigerian Embassy in Rome to call on the West African government spare the life of a woman due to be stoned to death under sharia law
- DECEMBER 21, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A shari'ah court in Sokoto State, northern Nigeria,...
A shari'ah court in Sokoto State, northern Nigeria, ordered the amputation of the right hands and left legs of two convicted armed robbers
- DECEMBER 18, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A legal practitioner and former Chairman of the Kaduna...
A legal practitioner and former Chairman of the Kaduna branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Daniel Enwelum, said that Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has no constitutional rights to stop the execution of the death sentence on Safiya Hussain,
- DECEMBER 17, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Nigerian Coalition of Women's Rights and Economic...
The Nigerian Coalition of Women's Rights and Economic Empowerment (CWREE) picked holes in the shari'ah court judgment that sentenced Safiya Hussaini, to death, saying that the death penalty runs counter to the constitution of all known international laws