NHRC, Australia seek formal moratorium on executions as 3,500 remain on death row

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Australian Government have called on Nigeria to formalise its nearly decade-long pause on executions, warning that more than 3,500 inmates remain on death row despite the absence of executions.

NHRC Executive Secretary, Tony Ojukwu, and Australia’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Leilani Bin-Juda, made the call in Abuja at an event commemorating the 2026 World Day Against the Death Penalty, themed, “Stories for Life.”

The event, held at the NHRC auditorium, was organised in collaboration with Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) France, the Australian High Commission and the German Embassy, with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy.

Bin-Juda, who aligned with the Commission’s position, reaffirmed Australia’s opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances and urged Nigeria to use its approaching 10-year milestone without executions as a springboard for broader legal and institutional reforms.

She warned that the presence of more than 3,500 people on death row showed that the human consequences of capital punishment remained unresolved, even in the absence of actual executions.

The envoy urged the authorities to formalise the existing moratorium and, pending wider reforms, reduce the range of offences punishable by death.

According to her, justice, accountability and public safety could be achieved without taking human lives, while international experience and constructive engagement could help Nigeria strengthen its criminal justice system.

Bin-Juda also referred to an earlier Federal High Court decision in which a judge reportedly declined to impose a death sentence, describing it as an indication of the evolving judicial and international debate over capital punishment.

Ojukwu said Nigeria would attain 10 consecutive years without a state execution by December 2026, meeting the international threshold for a de facto moratorium.

He, however, expressed concern that mandatory death sentences were still being imposed, leaving more than 3,000 inmates in prolonged detention on death row. “The constitutionality of the penalty does not dilute the non-negotiable requirement of fair trial guarantees,” he said, citing Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

Ojukwu identified inadequate pro bono legal representation, forced confessions and prolonged pre-trial detention among systemic problems capable of undermining procedural justice.

He described capital punishment under Nigerian law as presenting a constitutional duality, noting that while Section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, protects the right to life, it permits executions carried out pursuant to a court sentence.

He added that Section 34(1)(a) of the Constitution guarantees the dignity of the human person and protection from inhuman or degrading treatment. The NHRC boss recalled that the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in Onuoha Kalu v. The State (1998) and reaffirmed the position in Joseph Amoshima v. The State (2011).

Although Nigeria is not a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Ojukwu said the country remains bound by Article 6 of the ICCPR and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

According to him, both instruments demand strict adherence to due process and restrict the application of capital punishment to the most serious crimes.

Citing Section 5 of the NHRC (Amendment) Act 2010, Ojukwu said the Commission was calling for three immediate measures: the conversion of Nigeria’s 10-year pause on executions into an official executive moratorium; systematic use by state governors of their constitutional and statutory powers to commute death sentences to life imprisonment; and a re-evaluation of mandatory death penalty laws to allow judges to consider mitigating circumstances and systemic vulnerabilities during sentencing.

He said governors could invoke Section 212 of the Constitution and Section 12(2)(c) of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019, while the President also possesses prerogative of mercy powers under Section 175 of the Constitution.

Ojukwu explained that Section 12(2)(c) of the Correctional Service Act provides a mechanism for the commutation of sentences involving inmates who have exhausted their appeals and remained unexecuted for the prescribed period.

He thanked the Commission’s partners for their support and expressed hope that the deliberations would culminate in a Joint Call to Action Communiqué capable of advancing wider reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system.