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NIGERIA
‘WAITING FOR THE HANGMAN’
67
ENDNOTES
1 Amnesty International and LEDAP research; LEDAP, Who
has the right to kill, a report on the death penalty in Nigeria,
2001-2003.
2 They are currently on death row in Bauchi, Kaduna and Kano
States. Amnesty International and LEDAP research, 2007-2008.
3 For more information on the criminal justice system, see:
Amnesty International, Prisoner’s rights systematically flouted,
Index: AFR 44/001/2008, February 2008.
4 Angola, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau,
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda , Sao Tome & Principe,
Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa.
5 Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo
(Republic), Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Swaziland, Tanzania,
Togo, Tunisia, Zambia. Liberia acceded in September 2005 to the
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), which obliges Liberia to take all necessary
measures to abolish the death penalty. However, in July 2008, the
Liberian President signed a bill reintroducing the death penalty for
certain crimes.
6 In Samuel Bozin v The State, the appellant had been convicted
of armed robbery at the trial court and was sentenced to death.
The conviction and sentence were upheld at the appellate court,
but the Supreme Court, in allowing the appeal, held that ”the
appellant was obviously paraded as an armed robber, a short step
to his being identified as the armed robber”. See: Samuel Bozin
v The State, [1985] 2 NWLR pt. 8 p. 465.
7 Amnesty International interview, Lagos, 3 March 2008.
8 International law and Section 34(1) (a) of the Nigerian Constitution
prohibit torture.
9 National Human Rights Commission, State of Human Rights in
Nigeria 2005-2006.
10 These include the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
Nigerian NGOs including Access to Justice, Civil Liberty Organization
(CLO), Human Rights Law Service (HURILAWS), Legal Defence
and Assistance Project (LEDAP), Legal Resources Consortium
(LRC), Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA);
international NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights
Watch, and intergovernmental organizations such as the United
Nations (Special Rapporteur on Torture, Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions).
11 LEDAP interview, Kaduna, 26 May 2008.
12 LEDAP interview, Kaduna, 25 April 2008.
13 Amnesty International and LEDAP interview, Lagos, July 2008.
14 Amnesty International interview with senior officials at the Nigeria
Police Force Headquarters, 30 July 2007.
15 Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak
(Mission to Nigeria), 22 November 2007 http://daccess-ods.un.org/
TMP/7259748.html (accessed 13 May 2008)
16 Amnesty International interview, 16 July 2008, Abuja.
17 Amnesty International interview, 11 July 2008, Abuja.
18 On 2 July 2008, the Lagos Chief Judge, Justice Ade Alabi,
said that under the new Lagos State Criminal Procedure Rules
it is an offence for the police to arrest anybody in lieu of a suspect.
Thisday, Police can only arrest suspect, not relations, 3 July 2008;
Criminal Justice Administration in the High Courts and Magistrates’’
courts of Lagos state 2008.
19 LEDAP interview, Kaduna, 26 May 2008; CA/K/195/C/02
20 Amnesty International interview, July 2008, Abuja.
21 Nigeria Police Force, 2005 Annual report.
22 National Bureau of Statistics, Social Statistics in Nigeria, 2005.
23 Amnesty International, Nigeria: “Pragmatic policing” through
extra-judicial executions and torture, Index: AFR 44/006/2008
24 LEDAP, Impunity in Nigeria – report of summary and extrajudicial
killings in Nigeria 2007.
25 NOPRIN, Criminal Force? An Interim Report On The Nigeria
Police Force, December 2007.
26 UN Doc: E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.4, 7 January 2006.
Index: AFR 44/020/2008 Amnesty International October 2008