The Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo granted a...

The Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo granted a pardon to convicts waiting more than 20 years for execution. Cooperation Minister Jerry Gana said the pardon was granted "on compassionate grounds" and did not mean Nigeria had abolished the death penalty. The ruling also commuted to life imprisonment the death sentences of those who have waited between 10 and 20 years for execution. The decision to pardon the inmates has been welcomed by human rights organizations in Nigeria. "It is a welcome development but basically, we need to look at the administration of criminal justice itself," said Onyeisi Ohiemeke, who is head of Penal Reform and Prison Project, at the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO). Ohiemeke added that he does not believe the pardon was the start of the abolition of death sentences in Nigeria. "There is so much crime in Nigeria presently that there should first be some form of compensation to the person on whom a crime had been committed before thinking of abolishing death penalty," he said. Segun Jegede of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) said, "We hope the practice will continue on a periodic basis so as to decongest the overcrowded prisons." Latest statistics, published in June last year, show that there were a total of 40,598 inmates in Nigeria's 147 prisons. Out of this number, 60 percent comprised those who were either awaiting trial or those who had been tried and were awaiting sentence.