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
- 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"
- 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