While some countries have abandoned the death penalty as punishment for certain offences, Nigeria has remained undecided on the issue, with governors increasingly reluctant to sign death warrants – a development that comes with grave costs to convicts and the states, writes Assistant Editor ERIC IKHILAE.
A man convicted of murder sits in a narrow cell, counting days that never end.
The law says he should be hanged.
The courts have spoken, finally. Yet years pass, governors hesitate, and the rope never comes.
Across Nigeria’s prisons, thousands of condemned inmates exist in this limbo, suspended between life and death by political caution and legal ambivalence.
Their sentences are neither carried out nor lifted; instead, they wait – forgotten, restless, and costly to the state.
Nigeria retains the death penalty on its statute books, pronouncing it in open court with grim finality. Judges pass the ultimate sentence, citing the Constitution and criminal codes.
But when the time comes to enforce those judgments, state governors step back, unwilling to sign death warrants or commute sentences.
The result is a silent crisis: overcrowded prisons, broken justice timelines, psychological torment for inmates, and a system accused of cruelty through indecision.
From high-profile cases like Reverend King and Maryam Sanda to lesser-known convicts across the country, the pattern is the same. Courts condemn. Appeals end. Executions stall.
What remains is a swelling death row population and a country unsure whether it believes in capital punishment or merely pretends to.
As Nigeria debates morality, politics and human rights, the cost of hesitation grows, paid in overcrowded cells, strained public funds, and lives trapped in perpetual uncertainty.
The Supreme Court, in affirming the death sentence for murder handed to General Overseer of the Lagos-based Christian Praying Assembly, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo (a.k.a. Reverend King) by two lower courts, noted the grievous nature of the convict’s conduct.
In the lead judgment of the unanimous decision of a five-man panel delivered in February 2016, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta observed that the facts of the case were akin to scenes from horror movies, stating: “The facts of the case could have been lifted from a horror film.”
Ezeugo was first convicted by the High Court of Lagos State on January 11, 2007, and sentenced to various prison terms, including death by hanging, on a six-count charge of attempted murder and murder.
He was found guilty of setting ablaze six members of his church in 2006. One of the victims, Ann Uzoh, later died from the effects of the fire.
The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, affirmed the judgment of the High Court in a decision delivered on February 1, 2013.
Ezeugo has since remained on death row in one of the nation’s correctional facilities.
Similarly, in its judgment of December 12, 2025, the apex court noted that an Abuja-based housewife, Maryam Sanda, acted deliberately when she killed her husband.
In the lead majority judgment of a four-to-one split decision, Justice Moore Adumein noted the concurrent findings of the two lower courts that the deceased was intentionally killed by the appellant (Sanda), who had a premeditated plan to murder him.
Sanda was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in a judgment delivered on January 27, 2020, for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.
The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, in a judgment delivered on December 4, 2020.
Sanda has been on death row since the initial conviction by the trial court.
A High Court of Nasarawa State, sitting in Lafia, on June 26 convicted and sentenced Oluwatimileyin Ajayi to death by hanging for the gruesome murder of a National Youth Service Corps member, Salome Adaidu, whom he claimed was his girlfriend.
Justice Simon Aboki, in his judgment, found Ajayi guilty of culpable homicide for killing and dismembering the victim.
Justice Aboki held that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt that the convict killed the victim at his residence.
Ajayi is currently on death row.
An Ogun State High Court sitting in Kobape, Abeokuta, on February 3, 2025, sentenced three men – Lekan Adekanbi, Ahmed Odetola, and Waheed Adeniyi – to death by hanging for the murder of Kehinde Fatinoye, his wife Bukola Fatinoye, and their son, Oreoluwa, on January 1, 2023.
The couple was attacked at their Ibara GRA residence shortly after returning from a crossover service at their church.
Led by their driver, Adekanbi, the convicts invaded the deceased’s home at about 2 a.m., killing them before setting the house and their bodies on fire.
The convicts also tied up their son, Oreoluwa, and an adopted son before throwing them into the Ogun River.
What binds these four cases is that the courts found that all the convicts committed heinous offences for which they were to die by hanging, as provided under the Penal Code and the Criminal Code.
The death penalty is also sanctioned under Section 33 of the Constitution.
The difference, however, lies in the fact that Ajayi, Adekanbi, Odetola, and Adeniyi are yet to exhaust their rights of appeal to the apex court, should they choose to do so.
By contrast, Ezeugo and Sanda have fully exhausted their rights of appeal, thereby paving the way for the relevant authorities to execute the judgments directing that they be put to death by hanging.
However, since culpable homicide and related offences are state crimes, the duty of implementing such judgments rests with state governors.
Unfortunately, the recent trend has been that governors, who swore to uphold the Constitution and obey the laws of the land, have become reluctant or unwilling to sign death warrants or take other necessary steps in respect of death row inmates.
Exemption from death penalty provisions
Nigeria’s laws provide certain exceptions to the application of the death penalty.
These include cases involving pregnant women and young persons.
The law provides that where a pregnant woman is convicted of a capital offence, a sentence of death shall not be passed on her; rather, she may be sentenced to life imprisonment.
This provision is intended to prevent the unborn child from suffering punishment for the offence of the mother.
Under the Children and Young Persons Act 1994, a young person is defined as a person who has attained the age of 14 years and is under 18 years.
Where such a person is convicted of an offence punishable by death, the law provides that the death sentence shall not be pronounced or recorded; instead, the convict shall be detained at the pleasure of the President or the Governor, as the case may be.
The Supreme Court has, however, rejected attempts to extend this protection to nursing mothers.
The apex court made this distinction in its recent decision in the Sanda case.
Her lawyer had argued, among others, that Section 221 of the Child Rights Act, 2003 precludes a trial court from sentencing a nursing mother to death if she was nursing at the time of conviction and sentencing.
Justice Adumein rejected the argument, holding that “the principal intendment of the Child Rights Act, 2003 is the protection of the rights of the Nigerian child.”
He stated that it was “clearly not the intention of the lawmakers that the Act be used as a legal shield preventing an expectant or nursing mother from criminal prosecution or criminal liability.”
He further held that “any purported non-compliance with Section 221(2) of the Act cannot be a tool for exculpating a Nigerian mother from the consequences of committing serious offences such as armed robbery, culpable homicide punishable with death or murder.”
The state of death row inmates
According to data from the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), 3,688 inmates were on death row across the country as of March 2025.
The Comptroller-General of the NCoS, Sylvester Nwakuche, disclosed this while appearing before the Senate on March 13, 2025.
He said the figure rose from 3,590 in September 2024 to 3,688 in March 2025, contributing significantly to prison congestion.
Nwakuche blamed the situation on governors’ failure to act.
He said: “State governors are part of our challenges. They refuse to execute inmates on death row, and they also refuse to commute death sentences to life imprisonment.”
He added that commuting the sentences would allow the redistribution of inmates to less congested rural facilities.
The last execution in Nigeria occurred in 2016, when three men were hanged for murder and armed robbery during the tenure of former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Despite criticisms, Oshiomhole defended his action as fulfilling his constitutional duty.
He said: “The day I was sworn in, I subscribed to obey the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Since then, while courts continue to impose death sentences, governors’ refusal to sign death warrants has resulted in a de facto moratorium.
Argument against death row
The debate over the retention or abolition of the death penalty has persisted for decades.
Opponents argue that executing offenders amounts to multiplying sorrow in society, as homicide creates loss, while execution compounds it.
Unlike countries that have abolished the death penalty, Nigeria remains ambivalent—retaining the law while refusing to enforce it.
Is the country confused?
Nigeria’s indecision is evident in conflicting positions between the Federal Government and the states.
While some states prescribe death for kidnapping, the Federal Government has opposed capital punishment for such offences.
Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), voted against capital punishment for kidnapping during a Senate hearing.
He warned of a “martyrdom effect” and international consequences, noting that Nigeria’s counterterrorism cooperation could be weakened.
He added: “Our problem is not that punishments are not severe enough. It is that arrests are uncertain, investigations are weak, and prosecutions are slow.”
Costs of Nigeria’s ambivalence
NCoS spokesman Umar Abubakar said prolonged death row incarceration poses psychological and management challenges.
Former FCT Chief Judge, Justice Ishaq Bello, warned that governors’ inaction indirectly encourages crime.
Lawyer James Barkou described prolonged death row incarceration as double jeopardy, arguing that it violates inmates’ constitutional rights.
Governors’ action as abdication
According to law experts, the continued refusal by state governors to execute death penalty judgments, while the provision remains part of the nation’s laws, amounts to an abdication of their responsibility under the law.
President of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS), Professor Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), said it amounts to abdication of responsibility where governors fail to implement a judgment prescribing a death sentence.
For Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), keeping convicted persons perpetually on death row was inhuman as it results in mental torture for such a convict.
He believes it was necessary for governors to either sign their death warrants or convert them to life imprisonment.
Barkou argued that governors’ refusal to sign death warrants of convicted criminals was unconstitutional and was an attempt to blackmail the judges.
He noted that by refusing to sign death warrants for those convicted of capital offences, the governors had run against the constitution, which they swore to protect.
He said: “The refusal or reluctance of governors to sign the death warrant amounts to blackmailing the Judiciary and it is a way of disobeying the Constitution which they have sworn to protect.”
This position is amplified by Abdullahi Abaoki, an Abuja-based lawyer, who argued that the signing of death warrants by the governors was part of the oath they took while being inaugurated.
According to Abaoki, by constitutional provision, the governors had committed an impeachable offence by their failure to execute death sentence judgments.
What option exists?
According to Adetunbi, the option available to the country, if it remains uncommitted to retaining the death penalty, is for the National Assembly to amend the Constitution to replace the death sentence with life imprisonment, since the governors are unwilling to sign the death warrants.
Barkou said: “My take is that we must decide between the death sentence and life imprisonment, which should be the maximum penalty for capital offences.”
He argued that the country could not afford to sit on the fence on the issue, adding: “There should be no middle ground.
“It is defeatist to create laws that inherently circumvent their own enforcement through detailed technicalities and enforcement reluctance, as we could see with respect to laws concerning the death sentence.”
