Nigerian president silent over order to stone woman to death

THE Nigerian government yesterday remained silent over an Islamic court ruling a single mother should be stoned to death, despite growing international pressure to overturn the sentence.

A spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo declined to comment on the verdict or the resulting protests. “We are watching the situation,” said Tunji Oseni.

An Islamic court in the northern town of Funtua rejected an appeal on Monday by Amina Lawal, 30, against the death sentence for having sex outside marriage.

The woman’s lawyers said they will appeal to a higher court. Human rights groups said the sentence violated international conventions and called on Obasanjo’s government to stop it.

LaShawn Jefferson of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said: “The death penalty is never an appropriate punishment for a crime, and, in this instance, the very nature of the crime is in doubt.”

London-based Amnesty International said stoning people to death was “the ultimate form of torture” and the “sentence should not be carried out”.

EU spokesman Michael Curtis said it would launch “appeals and demarches” against the Nigerian government to try to overturn Lawal’s sentence.

“We are concerned about this case. Our opposition to the death penalty is clear,” he said.

Lawal was first sentenced in March after giving birth to a daughter more than nine months after divorcing.

Her conviction was upheld on the basis she admitted having sex outside marriage. The man she identified as her baby’s father denied the charges and was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The introduction of Islamic law in a dozen northern states since 1999 has sparked clashes between Nigeria’s Christians and Muslims.

Lawal is the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death for having sex out of wedlock under Islamic law. The first woman, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March on her first appeal.