Africa News
Rights commission calls for action on death row Nigerians
Sep 24, 2008, 10:56 GMT
Abuja - Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission called on the government Wednesday to examine why so many Nigerians are facing the death penalty worldwide.
'More than 50 Nigerians are currently on death row across the globe,' the commission's spokesman, Lambert Oparah, said.
'The situation should be a worry to the government ... whose image in the international community is further tarnished by these vicious and heinous criminal activities,' Oparah added.
More than 10 Nigerians were recently sentenced to death in Indonesia on drugs-related offences.
Oparah urged the Nigerian government to examine why Nigerian youths abandoned their country to engage in criminal acts.
Despite vast oil resources, many people in Africa's most populous country live in abject poverty.
Oparah, however, said that the government should attempt to convince countries to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment.
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