NGO urges FG to replace death penalty with long-term imprisonment

Hope Behind Bars Africa, a non-governmental organisation, has called on the federal government to review Nigeria’s capital punishment laws and replace the death penalty with long-term imprisonment.

The call followed the release of the group’s report titled Beyond Her Sentence: A Technical Analysis of Gender and Capital Punishment in Nigeria, which was produced after a 10-month study across 10 correctional facilities nationwide.

Presenting the findings, Funke Adeoye, executive director of Hope Behind Bars Africa, said executions should be halted to prevent irreversible miscarriages of justice.

“Our justice system is not perfect, and when mistakes happen, the death penalty leaves no room for correction,” she said.

Nigeria retains capital punishment under statutory, customary and Sharia legal systems, with death sentences prescribed for offences such as murder, armed robbery, treason and adultery in some jurisdictions.

According to the report, 82 women are currently on death row in prisons across the country. Adeoye said researchers surveyed 60 female death row inmates in 10 states and conducted interviews with state counsels, defence lawyers and civil society groups.

She said almost half of the women on death row are aged between 18 and 35, while 26 percent fall within the 36 to 50 age bracket. The report also highlighted low educational attainment among the inmates, noting that more than a third had no formal education, while only 10 percent attained tertiary education.

Adeoye added that about 70 percent of the women are mothers, with their children left in unstable care arrangements or informal guardianship, often with long-term social and psychological consequences.

The report further revealed that more than a third of the women had experienced gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, forced marriage and child marriage. In several cases, the offences for which they were convicted were linked to coercion or prolonged abuse by spouses or partners.

Poverty and economic dependence were identified as key factors contributing to wrongful convictions, as many of the women lacked access to competent legal representation.

Within the justice system, Adeoye said the report exposed gaps in awareness and transparency. About 75 percent of the inmates said they did not understand the laws under which they were charged, while 85 percent believed the laws were unfair to women. More than half described their trials as non-transparent, and 62 percent said they did not understand the investigation or court processes.

She also noted that many of the women reported abandonment by spouses and families after incarceration, particularly in cases involving adultery or sexual offences, where social stigma was harsher for women.

Despite their circumstances, over 80 percent of the women interviewed said rehabilitation was possible and preferable to execution. They recommended alternatives such as long-term imprisonment, vocational training and restorative justice.

Hope Behind Bars Africa called for an immediate moratorium on executions as a step toward abolition, legal reforms to remove discriminatory evidentiary rules, expansion of legal aid services and the adoption of gender-sensitive sentencing.

The group also recommended reforms in detention practices to provide reproductive healthcare, childcare and mental health support, alongside increased investment in rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.

The report concluded that women on death row are not criminals in isolation but products of systemic inequality, cultural oppression and socio-economic hardship, urging Nigeria to adopt a rehabilitation-centred justice system in line with global abolitionist trends.