Amnesty International Says Nigeria is Secretly Executing Prisoners, Deliberately Misleading the World
(New York)--Amnesty International revealed today that secret executions have taken place in Nigeria's prisons within the
last two years, despite new assurances by the government that Nigeria has not executed anyone "in recent years."
The organization has uncovered evidence that at least seven executions took place in the last two years and fears more
individuals may have been put to death. All of the individuals were executed by hanging.
Until now, it had been widely assumed that no executions had taken place in Nigeria since 2002. On November 15, 2007, a
Nigerian government representative at the United Nations spoke about the death penalty in Nigeria. He said: "Punishment
only comes after exhaustive legal and judicial processes, including recourse to the supreme court of the land...It is
thus on record that we have not carried out any capital punishment in recent years in Nigeria."
"Carrying out secret executions while deliberately misleading the world about your death penalty record is shocking and
inexcusable," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Nigeria must investigate how and why
this could have happened and should immediately halt any further executions."
Amnesty International found that all of the individuals recently executed were convicted in a Kano state court and
relocated to prisons across the country. The death warrants were all signed by the current Kano state governor, Malam
Ibrahim Shekarau.
The detailed cases uncovered by Amnesty International include:
* On May 30, 2006, Kenneth Ekhone and Auwalu Musa were executed by hanging in Kaduna Central Prison. They were tried and
convicted by a Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, but did not have lawyers throughout the proceedings. Neither was given an
opportunity to appeal the judgments. Until his death, Auwalu Musa denied he had anything to do with the crime.
* On June 15, 2006, Salisu Babuga was transferred from Kaduna prison to Jos prison, where he was hanged.
* At least four men were hanged in Enugu prison in 2006.
* Amnesty International also believes that at least one execution has taken place in Port Harcourt prison. The
organization is continuing to investigate in order to confirm the names of those executed and the dates of the
executions.
"It is inexcusable for a government to mislead about something as serious as the taking of human life, and we are
shocked at what appears to be an attempt by the Nigerian government to deliberately deceive the international
community," said Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty International's Africa Program.
Background information
Approximately 700 prisoners are estimated to be on death row in Nigeria. More than 200 inmates have been on death row
for over ten years, some for over 25 years.
Many of these individuals were convicted and sentenced to death by the Robbery and Firearms Tribunals under the military
rule. Defendants did not have the right of appeal. After 1999, jurisdiction was supposed to be restored to state-level
High Courts with the right to appeal. However, in numerous cases the inmates were not informed of this right, or they
did not have legal representation or money for an appeal and thus never filed one. A number of convicts did file an
appeal at the time they were sentenced to death; however, their cases were never heard in court. Individuals who did not
have lawyers should have been provided legal representation by the state to follow up their cases.
A government-established National Study Group on the Death Penalty acknowledged in 2004 that "a system that would take a
life must first give justice" and thus recommended a moratorium on the death penalty "until the Nigerian Criminal
Justice System can ensure fundamental fairness and due process in capital cases and minimize the risk that innocent
people will be executed."
A Presidential Commission on Reform of the Administration of Justice (PCRAJ) reiterated that conclusion in May 2007 and
called for "an official moratorium on executions until Nigerian criminal justice system can ensure fundamental fairness
and due process in capital cases." The PCRAJ concluded that "the Federal Government and indeed State Governments can no
longer ignore the systemic problems that have long existed in our criminal justice system."
Both commissions highlighted that inmates on death row are "almost exclusively poor and without legal representation."
Article 14(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: "Everyone convicted of a crime shall
have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law."
On December 18, the UN General Assembly will be voting to reaffirm the resolution calling for a moratorium on
executions, agreed by the General Assembly's Third Committee on November 15.
ENDS