Amnesty International said in a statement that it had received “credible reports that authorities in the state of Edo … have hanged four men in Benin City Prison on Monday – the first known executions in the country since 2006.”
“If confirmed, these executions mark a sudden, brutal return to the use of the death penalty in Nigeria, a truly dark day for human rights in the country,” Amnesty deputy director for Africa, Lucy Freeman, said in the statement The human rights organisation urged Nigerian authorities to stop all executions immediately and “return to the moratorium on executions in the country.”
“We oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception, as it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,” it said.
President Goodluck Jonathan recently called on state governors to sign death warrants, saying it was their responsibility under the law, according to local media reports.
According to Amnesty, around 1,000 people are thought to be on death row in Africa’s largest oil producer and most populous nation.
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