Former Kaduna Central Senator Shehu Sani has made a strong appeal for an urgent review of the cases involving nearly 4,000 Nigerians currently languishing on death row in correctional facilities across the nation.
Speaking on Friday, October 9, 2026, at 9:43 AM WAT in Abuja, Sani highlighted that many of these inmates have been stuck in legal limbo for over 30 years, dating back to the military era.
The former lawmaker and human rights activist pointed out that a systemic impasse has left thousands of condemned prisoners in prolonged uncertainty. State governors routinely decline to sign death warrants required for legal executions, while simultaneously hesitating to commute death sentences to life imprisonment or grant official pardons.
”No Governor wants to sign their execution and no one wants to commute their sentence,” Sani stated, emphasizing that this dynamic has created a de facto moratorium on executions while piling enormous administrative and security burdens on the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).
Sani noted that managing death row inmates poses severe operational challenges for prison wardens and officers due to the security risks associated with keeping condemned individuals indefinitely.
To break the deadlock, he urged the leadership of the Nigerian Correctional Service, led by Controller General Haliru Nababa, to collaborate closely with state governments and the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy to identify deserving inmates for clemency or sentence reduction.
Sani, who was himself a political prisoner under the military regime of General Sani Abacha, reiterated that while deciding on capital offenses is inherently complex, a comprehensive judicial review is imperative to alleviate severe overcrowding in custodial centers nationwide.
