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
- DECEMBER 16, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An Islamic court told Safiya Hussaini, who was sentenced...
An Islamic court told Safiya Hussaini, who was sentenced to die after being found guilty of adultery, that her life will be spared if she can prove her daughter Adama, who is now almost a year old, was the result of rape
- DECEMBER 13, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
As 35-year-old Safiya Hussaini's death sentence by...
As 35-year-old Safiya Hussaini's death sentence by stoning continues to generate controversies across the globe, it appears the adultery case promises to test the restoration of Islamic law in 12 northern states
- DECEMBER 13, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos [Dr Anthony Olubunmi...
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos [Dr Anthony Olubunmi Okogie] offered to die for a mother of five sentenced to death by stoning by a Muslim sharia court in northwest Sokoto state which convicted her of sex outside marriage
- DECEMBER 12, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A leading member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's...
A leading member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party lobbied the government to intervene with a Nigerian Muslim state to spare the life of a woman due to be stoned to death under Sharia law
- DECEMBER 9, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini said of the death sentence hanging...
Safiya Hussaini said of the death sentence hanging over her: 'I felt sick when the judge passed down the sentence because of the injustice of it all
- DECEMBER 5, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman is...
In the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto, a woman is awaiting the outcome of an appeal against a conviction for adultery by an Islamic, or Sharia, court
- DECEMBER 5, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini Tudu, the Sokoto woman convicted of...
Safiya Hussaini Tudu, the Sokoto woman convicted of adultery by a Sharia court cried out for justice to be done to her
- DECEMBER 5, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini's lawyer, a man called Abdulkadar Imam...
Safiya Hussaini's lawyer, a man called Abdulkadar Imam Ibrahim, does not inspire confidence
- DECEMBER 3, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Nigerian sharia court of appeal ordered a stay of...
A Nigerian sharia court of appeal ordered a stay of execution for a woman sentenced to be stoned to death for having sex outside of marriage, despite her contention that she was raped, officials said
- DECEMBER 3, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Scores of women carrying placards and chanting songs...
Scores of women carrying placards and chanting songs stormed Governor Bola Tinubu's Office in Alausa pleading for Safiya Hussaini's life
- DECEMBER 2, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An NGO based in Abuja, the Multmedia Centre for Democracy,...
An NGO based in Abuja, the Multmedia Centre for Democracy, decried the death sentence passed on Safiya Hussaini in Sokoto state
- DECEMBER 2, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Halima Abdullahi, director of Help Eliminate Loneliness...
Halima Abdullahi, director of Help Eliminate Loneliness and Poverty, HELP, a non-governmental organisation, said the verdict condemning Safiya Hussaini to death by stoning for adultery "was a thorough embarrassment" to the majority of Nigerian Muslims
- NOVEMBER 27, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
As the controversy over the death sentence passed on...
As the controversy over the death sentence passed on Safiya Tungar-Tudu for adultery continued, an Islamic Scholar, Abdulfattai Adeyemi, urged the Sokoto Sharia committee to exercise restraint in carrying out the punishment
- NOVEMBER 23, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
"Safiya Hussaini was in court on November 22," Sokoto...
"Safiya Hussaini was in court on November 22," Sokoto state spokesman Mustapha Shehu told Reuters by phone from Sokoto city
- NOVEMBER 21, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Etim Okpoyo, Nigerian Ambassador to Rome, assured Hands...
Etim Okpoyo, Nigerian Ambassador to Rome, assured Hands Off Cain that the Federal Government will not allow Safiya Hussaini to be stoned to death
- NOVEMBER 20, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
ITALIAN ACTIVISTS PROTEST AGAINST SAFIYA’S DEATH SENTENCE
November 20, 2001: Hands off Cain and Italian political parties will stage a protest in Rome tomorrow against the death sentence by stoning handed out to a Nigerian woman for pre-marital sex.
- NOVEMBER 19, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The House of Representatives Committee on Women and...
The House of Representatives Committee on Women and Youth Development intervened in the case of a woman, Safiya Hussaini sentenced to death by a Sharia court for committing adultery saying it had persuaded the Speaker, Hon
- NOVEMBER 19, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A Sharia court in Gusau Local Gov-ernment Area of Zamfara...
A Sharia court in Gusau Local Gov-ernment Area of Zamfara State sentenced a 40-year-old man, Nagogo Kakumi, to 40 strokes of the cane and two months imprisonment for contravening the Sharia law by marrying five wives at the same time
- NOVEMBER 15, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
For the very first time since the reintroduction of...
For the very first time since the reintroduction of the Shari'ah legal system in Nigeria, a man, Sani Rodi, was sentenced to death by knifing
- NOVEMBER 13, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Sokoto State government declared that the Federal...
The Sokoto State government declared that the Federal Government can not change the judgement of death sentence by stoning [for adultery] passed on Hajiya Safiyatu Husseini by the Gwadabawa Upper Sharia Court
- NOVEMBER 13, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Federal Government stepped into the recent death...
The Federal Government stepped into the recent death sentence passed on Safiya Tungar-Tudu, 33, by a Sharia court in Sokoto State, with the Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige declaring that Abuja would not fold its han
- NOVEMBER 11, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
DevNet, a development information NGO, called on the...
DevNet, a development information NGO, called on the Federal Government and the Sokoto State Government to speedily intervene and save Safiya Tungar-Tudu from death by stoning
- NOVEMBER 9, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An Islamic court in the northern Nigerian state of...
An Islamic court in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina sentenced a pregnant teenage girl and her lover to 100 lashes each for pre-marital sex
- NOVEMBER 8, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Irish Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, must...
The Irish Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, must intervene in the case of a pregnant Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning, protesters outside the Justice Department said
- NOVEMBER 5, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Barrister Abdulkadir Iman Ibrahim, counsel for Hajiya...
Barrister Abdulkadir Iman Ibrahim, counsel for Hajiya Safiyatu Husseini of Tungar Tudu, the pregnant woman condemned to death for adultery on October 9, appealed against her conviction on October 25, and also filed for a stay of execution until the Sokoto
- NOVEMBER 5, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Women In Nigeria condemned the death sentence for adultery...
Women In Nigeria condemned the death sentence for adultery given to Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu, 30, by an Islamic court while her alleged lover, Yakubu Abubakar, 53, got off scot free
- NOVEMBER 4, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre,...
The Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, [WARDC] a non-governmental organization, condemned the death sentence passed on Satiya Hussaina Tunger-Tudu for alleged adultery by an upper sharia court in Gwadebawa, in the northern Sokoto State
- NOVEMBER 2, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A pregnant woman sentenced to death by stoning by an...
A pregnant woman sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court in Nigeria has fled her home, an official said
- NOVEMBER 2, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A pregnant woman sentenced to death by stoning by an...
A pregnant woman sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court in Nigeria has fled her home, an official said
- NOVEMBER 1, 2001NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Apparently embarrassed by the widespread criticism...
Apparently embarrassed by the widespread criticism of the death sentence passed on a pregnant woman by an Islamic court in Nigeria's northern Sokoto State, the federal government joined in appealing against the ruling