The international rights group ASF France has revealed that 82 Nigerian women are currently on death row, noting this figure is among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Speaking at a capacity-building session in Abuja, Country Director Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu argued that the death penalty is not gender-neutral, citing biases that affect women throughout the criminal justice system. She explained that many of these women are convicted after reacting to domestic violence, yet the justice system fails to recognize their status as victims, instead prosecuting them for their crimes and “for being women who dared to commit crimes.” Furthermore, she pointed out that poverty severely limits their access to quality legal defense, influencing conviction outcomes. Uzoma-Iwuchukwu gave an example where ASF France intervened to overturn a death-by-stoning sentence for a young woman in Katsina State convicted only for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. The organization called for a moratorium on executions and demanded that female survivors of gender-based violence be recognized as victims and receive fair sentencing. Supporting this view, Dr. Chioma Kanu of the Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre emphasized that some inmates are convicted based on confessions obtained through police torture or due to a lack of legal representation, asserting the risk of executing innocent people.
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