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52
NIGERIA
‘WAITING FOR THE HANGMAN’
9/RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations to the Federal Government
The Federal Government should abolish the death penalty and, pending abolition,
should take the following steps as a matter of urgency:
Immediately declare a moratorium on all executions as provided by UN General
Assembly resolution 62/149 and recommended by the National Study Group on Death
Penalty and the Presidential Committee on Reform of the Administration of Justice.
Commute without delay all death sentences to terms of imprisonment.
Remove all provisions in legislation which provide for the death penalty for people
under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged crime.
Ensure that in capital cases the most rigorous internationally recognized and
constitutional standards for fair trial 180 are respected.
Improve access to Legal Aid for poor detainees, and provide adequate resources to
the Legal Aid Council for the appointment of more lawyers.
Undertake full, impartial and independent investigations into all judicial executions
since 1999 and make the findings public.
Ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) and the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture.
Recommendations to the National Assembly
Ensure that the Federal Government implements the recommendations of the National
Study Group on Death Penalty and the Presidential Commission on Reform of the
Administration of Justice, in particular the establishment of a moratorium on executions
and the commutation of all death sentences.
Review the Prison Act and the Police Act, and ensure that the treatment of detainees
and prisoners is in conformity with the Nigerian Constitution as well as with international
Amnesty International October 2008 Index: AFR 44/020/2008