NIGERIA. AMNESTY INT'L WANTS YAR’ADUA TO END CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Amnesty International asked Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to suspend the execution of hundreds of convicts presently on death row pending the abrogation of the death penalty from the nation’s statute book. Addressing journalists in Abuja, the organisation’s Nigeria Researcher, Ms Aster Van Kregten, said that most of the convicts on death row were not given fair trials before they were condemned. According to statistics obtained from the Federal Ministry of Justice, “there are 736 condemned prisoners in Nigerian prisons as at February 2008. 725 of these are men and 11 are women.” “We call on the Nigerian government to demonstrate its commitment to respect human rights at the national level and adopt a moratorium on executions, incorporate the provisions of the UN Convention against Torture” she said.