The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has asked Nigeria to abolish death sentence for any crime, stating that the country has over 1000 people on death row.

The call was made by the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, Ms. Lucy Asuagbor during a visit to the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Nigeria is currently a signatory to the moratorium for temporary suspension of death penalty.

Asuagbor said the commission wants members who signed the moratorium to take a further step to abolish death penalty.

She said, “The African Commission has adopted a draft on abolition. Prior to that, we issued resolutions inviting member states to observe a moratorium on death penalty.

“Actually, most countries are observing the moratorium but we want them to take a further step to abolish (death penalty) because there is problem with the moratorium, especially when we still have persons on death row like in Nigeria, where we have at least a thousand people on death row – going by the statistics we got from the prison authorities. At least a thousand people are on death row and this makes death sentence to be hanging on people’s neck for so long.

“So, it is better for the authorities to take their courage and go straight to abolishing or take the decision that defines the real status of those on the death row either by commuting the sentences or causing them to be executed.

“Our stance is that if they cannot abolish they must observe the moratorium by not pronouncing the death sentence or commuting the sentence of those on death row.”

Azeez