A Human Rights group, Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) France has revealed that no fewer than 82 Nigerian women are currently on death row across correctional centres in the Nigeria, describing the figure as one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
The organisation’s Country Director, Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, disclosed this on Wednesday at a capacity-building workshop on Mainstreaming Gender Perspective in the Use of the Death Penalty, held in Abuja as part of activities marking the global 16 Days of Activism.
Uzoma-Iwuchukwu said the women, many of whom are survivors of domestic abuse, have been “neglected, forgotten and repeatedly discriminated against” throughout the criminal justice process—from arrest and trial to conviction and incarceration.
“The death penalty is often projected as gender-neutral, but it is not,” she said.
“Women face multiple layers of bias in the justice system. Many reacted in self-defence after years of domestic violence, yet the courts failed to recognise them as victims.”
She added that most of the inmates could not afford quality legal representation, a factor she described as a critical determinant in capital punishment cases.
“As a capital defence lawyer, I know that the quality of legal defence you get can determine whether you end up on death row. Many of these women are poor and cannot pay for a competent lawyer. Poverty plays a huge role in pushing them to the gallows,” she said.
Uzoma-Iwuchukwu cited the case of a young woman in Katsina State who was sentenced to death by stoning under Sharia law for becoming pregnant outside wedlock. According to her, the woman’s conviction was flawed because investigators never identified the man responsible for the pregnancy.
“The only evidence against her was the pregnancy itself—no one bothered to ask who got her pregnant,” she said. The sentence was later overturned at the Court of Appeal after ASF France intervened.
Uzoma-Iwuchukwu urged the Federal Government to place an immediate moratorium on executions, particularly for female death-row inmates, and to ensure that experiences of gender-based violence are treated as mitigating factors during sentencing.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre (MAMA Centre), Dr. Chioma Kanu, warned that the justice system continues to punish innocent families through wrongful convictions and flawed investigations.
“Behind every inmate is a mother, sister, daughter or wife whose life is torn apart,” she said. “Not every death-row inmate is a criminal.
Some were forced to confess under police torture. Some have remained in prison for decades because their case files went missing. Many simply couldn’t afford a lawyer.”
Kanu stressed that while society wants justice for victims of crime, it must also ensure that the innocent are not condemned to death.
“We can release an innocent prisoner,” she said, “but we cannot wake the dead.”
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