NHRC, Australia Press FG To Formalise Execution Moratorium As 3,500 Inmates Languish On Death Row

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Australian Government have called on the federal government to formally halt executions, commute death sentences to life imprisonment and reform Nigeria’s capital punishment laws, as more than 3,500 inmates remain on death row despite nearly a decade without executions.
The call comes as Nigeria approaches its 10th consecutive year without a state execution, with the two parties urging the government to translate the development into concrete criminal justice reforms rather than allow condemned inmates to remain indefinitely in uncertainty.
Speaking at the 2026 World Day Against the Death Penalty commemoration in Abuja on Friday, the...