ASF France dropped a bombshell in Abuja: 82 Nigerian women are rotting on death row across correctional centers – one of sub-Saharan Africa’s highest counts – and the justice system is stacking the deck against them with deep gender biases.
Country Director Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu lit up the two-day Capacity-building Session on Gender Perspectives in the Death Penalty, part of the 16 Days of Activism, calling out how poverty, poor legal defense, and overlooked domestic violence histories doom these women – many victims turned defendants without fair shakes. She spotlighted a Katsina case where ASF flipped a stoning sentence for out-of-wedlock pregnancy, proving biased evidence like “she’s pregnant” ignores real culprits.
Uzoma-Iwuchukwu slammed the “neutral” myth of capital punishment, pushing for execution moratoriums and recognizing GBV survivors as victims for lighter sentences. Dr. Chioma Kanu of Mothers And Marginalised Advocacy Centre added heart: These aren’t just inmates – they’re moms, sisters creating grief cycles from unfair trials, torture confessions, or lost files; better release innocents than bury the wrongly dead.
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