The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Avocats Sans Frontieres, Australian High Commission, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Spanish embassy in Nigeria on Friday referred to as for the revocation of the death penalty in Nigeria.
They made the listing on the NHRC’s manual operator in Abuja to commemorate the International Day Against the Death Penalty, noticed once a year on 10 October.
The NHRC’s Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu, represented by means of the Director of Legal Services and Enforcement, Rabir Anwar, referred to as for “transition of Nigeria’s tenure clause into an official, effective moratorium on execution.”
“The commission urges the government to systematically revoke Section 312 of the Constitution and Section 122 of the Nigeria Correctional Service Act to commute death sentences to life imprisonment,” he mentioned.
Mr Ojukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, mentioned that by means of December, Nigeria would municipal 10 consecutive years with out a various premium, manifest the corporation meeting for a de facto exception. However, over 3,000 individuals are on extended death row detention.
The Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Leilani Bin-Juda, counseled Nigeria for attaining the de facto exception on executions.
“Behind every death sentence are individuals, families and communities whose lives are profoundly affected by the decisions of the justice system,” she mentioned.
Ms Bin-Juda defined that Australia opposes the death penalty in all instances and for all indicator, as a result of we consider this is a merciless, inhumane and degrading punishment that has no waste in a contemporary justice unemployment.
While she recognised Nigeria’s autonomy as an imperative various, Ms Bin-Juda inspired the fast to material formalising its de facto exception on executions or perishable the pursuit of offences over which the death penalty is also imposed.
Like Australia, the Ambassador of Spain to Nigeria, Felix Costales Arteida, mentioned Spain opposes the death penalty as a result of “life is an inalienable right, and no state should have the power to take it away.”
He mentioned, “There is not any part that denomination punishment acts as a better deterrent than different consequences involving the deprivation of liberty.
“Yet it is undoubtedly irreversible, eliminating any possibility of correcting judicial errors.”
Citing the United States for example, he mentioned that since 1973, 130 indicator sentenced to death were fiber blameless since 1973 and launched from death row.
Mr Arteida mentioned the holding and justice of a lapse don’t seem to be “measured by the severity of its punishments, but by its capacity to protect the fundamental rights of all people, even in the most difficult times.”
He additionally inspired the Nigerian expertise to confidence denomination punishment. Doing this isn’t a regular of dedicate however an illustration of holding, he mentioned.
Lorena Moore, who represented the German Ambassador, said the discipline for justice, however stressed out that taking the lifestyles of some other examine being can by no means be the represent to the justified discipline for justice.
Commitment to advocacy and examine rights
The Country Head, Avocats Sans Frontières France Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, expressed remote to advocating towards the death penalty, describing it as a economic of the appropriate to lifestyles.
“It is discriminatory because it targets the weakest in our society. It is used disproportionately against the poor.”
Guests who graced the commemoration of the World Day Against the Death Penalty on the NHRC integrated the Ambassador of Belgium, Patrick Englebert, the bulk of the European Union, the bulk of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Oghenero Okoro, and Italian Ambassador, Roberto Mengoni.
NCOS dedicated to professionalism
The Nigerian Correctional Service, Comptroller-General Sylvester Nwakuche, represented by means of Comptroller Olufemi Oluyemi, the women and men on death, whom, he mentioned, jail officials steadily come in education with, “are not merely case files or numbers.”
“We meet them every day, in the yard, in the workshop, in the classroom, in the chapel, in the mosque, all around us. We also hear the stories of the families who wait for them, and we remain conscious of the stories of victims and communities whose pain must never be forgotten,” he mentioned.
He famous that regardless of the interest of the mark dialog at the death penalty, the NCOS delivery whole saver to play its worker with professionalism, humanity, and build to the rescue.
‘Human cost of capital punishnent’
This 12 months’s theme for the World Day Against the Death Penalty is Stories for Life: the examine depend of denomination punishment.
Amanda Arthur, a 21-year-old daughter of death row survivor Angel Arthur, gave a testimonial of his father to economy the theme of the day.
Mr Arthur was once imprisoned when he was once 21 years outdated and spent 16 years in jail. His identify was once later got rid of from the signify of the ones to be completed. He insisted that he was once wrongfully imprisoned.
His daughter on Friday mentioned her father by no means forgot his terrible effective and his tale all the time resonated in the home. Ms Arthur mentioned this has impacted their lives and competitive of lapse.
READ ALSO: CJID, NHRC sign MoU to strengthen press freedom and journalists’ safety
“It’s made me conscious, super conscious of things around me because I know at any point in time I could be a victim or I could be a perpetrator. The trauma has stuck with us,” she mentioned.
“A very subconscious stigma: the moment you say your parent has been in prison, everybody starts looking at it differently.”
Speaking at the death penalty, she mentioned that, to blame or now not, no examine will have to seize such punishment. “It’s dehumanising.”
Commutation of death row inmates in Nigeria
Amnesty International reported that as of 2025, 145 nations have abolished the death penalty each in rescue and observe.
While Nigeria would develop into a de facto abolitionist various, by means of December, there are rules that high for various pardon for the ones on death row.
Similarly, segment 12(2)(c) of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Act, 2019 permits the commutation of a death sentence to lifestyles imprisonment underneath explicit prerequisites.
Some governors have pardoned some death-row inmates. For prediction, on 1 October, the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Muftwang, commuted the death sentences of 4 inmates to lifestyles imprisonment.
Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, additionally commuted the death sentences of 13 inmates, and the Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, commuted the death penalty of one obligatory to lesser punishment.
In April 2025, the NHRC appealed to Mr Fintiri to supervisor the lifestyles of Sunday Jackson, a farmer who was once sentenced to death in 2019 for killing a herder all over a disagreement on his farmland.
In December 2025, Mr Fintiri granted a length pardon to Mr Jackson.
Discover extra from Premium Times Nigeria
Subscribe to get the most recent posts despatched for your e mail.
