THIS MUST BE STOPPED -  CONTACT NIGERIAN OFFICIALS:

  APPEALS TO:
  His Excellency
  Ibrahim Samiru Turaki (APP)
  State Governor
  Government House
  Dutse
  Jigawa State, Nigeria
  Telegram: State Governor, Jigawa State, Nigeria
  Salutation: Your Excellency

  His Excellency
  Abdulkadir Kure (PDP)
  State Governor, State House
  35000 Minna
  Niger State, Nigeria
  Telegram: State Governor, Niger State, Nigeria
  Salutation: Your Excellency

  Alhaji Sule Lamido
  Minister of Foreign Affairs
  Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  Maputo Street, Zone 3, Wuse District
  PMB 130, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
  Telegram: Foreign Affairs Minister, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
  Fax: + 234 9 523 0208
  Salutation: Dear Minister

  Minister of Justice and Attorney General
  His Excellency Kanu Agabi
  Ministry of Justice
  New Federal Secretariat Complex, Shehu Shagari Way
  Central Area District
  Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
  Telegram: Minister of Justice, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
  Fax + 234 9 5230660
  Salutation: Your Excellency

  COPIES TO:
  H. E. Mr George Ochekwu Ajonye
  Ambassador
  Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
  Tyrgatan 8
  Box 628
  S-101 32 Stockholm
  Sweden

  telefax: + 46 8 24 63 98
 

An Example Letter and Fax Numbers

     News About Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman

                   Nigerian Couple Sentenced to Stoning
                 Thu Aug 29 2002 - By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - An Islamic court has sentenced a couple to death by
stoning for having an affair, marking the first time in Nigeria that a man has been
sentenced to death for adultery, media reported Thursday.

The sentence came a week after an Islamic court rejected single mother Amina Lawal's appeal of a stoning sentence for having sex outside of marriage.

Lawal's case provoked an international outcry, with governments and human rights groups around the world urging President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration to intercede on her behalf.

The couple, Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman, both 30, were sentenced to death Monday by a court in the central town of New Gawu.

Usman had become pregnant with Ibrahim's child while she was married to another man, the radio and television reports said.

Ibrahim and Usman had originally been sentenced to five years in prison in May after pleading guilty to adultery but protested to a higher court that the sentence was too harsh.

Their appeal backfired Monday when the court ruled instead that their sentence was too lenient, the reports said. The state's Shariah laws prescribe death as punishment for adultery.

The two were not present at their sentencing because they were not allowed to leave jail, the reports said.

Ibrahim is the first man to be sentenced to death for adultery in Nigeria. Previously only women were prosecuted and their children used as evidence while men got off because of a lack of proof.

Meanwhile, a man who allegedly confessed to raping a nine-year-old girl in northern Jigawa state may only be days from stoning, government officials said Thursday.

The Jigawa government said 50-year-old Ado Baranda could be executed at "anytime" now that his time for him to appeal has expired.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch expressed concern Thursday that the trial where Baranda allegedly confessed to rape may not have been fair.

"The reason for his decision not to appeal has not been confirmed, but on the basis of past experience, we are concerned the trial may not have been fair," said Peter Takirambudde, the group's Africa director.

The government has not said when Baranda will be executed only that it will be soon.

"In Shariah law we do not waste time," government spokesman Usman Zakari Dutse said. "That is the best way to get justice."

Nigeria is deeply divided about the application of Islamic law, or Shariah, which calls for cutting off a hand to punish theft and death for adultery.

Decisions by a dozen states in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north to adopt the strict Islamic code since 1999 sparked clashes with the region's Christian minority that have killed hundreds.

Lawal was the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death under Islamic law for having sex out of wedlock. The first, Safiya Hussaini, had her sentence overturned in March
on her first appeal.

"In the 21st century, the right of women to choose partners should not be condemned by stoning to death," said Noeleen Heyzer, director of the United Nations ( news - web sites) Development Fund for Women said Wednesday.

Amnesty International has criticised the latest Shari'ah imposition against a
woman, Fatima Usman, 30 and a man Ahmadu Ibrahim, 32, who were sentenced
to death by stoning in Nigeria.

The couple, from New Gawu in Niger state were both arrested and charged with
adultery following a police officer's report, which was brought to court in May
this year.

The initial sentence handed to Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman was five years
imprisonment with a fine of N15,000 (UKP75). The state judiciary then called for
a retrial because they considered this to be a lesser punishment than was deserved.

Amnesty International's director in the UK, Kate Allen, said a non-violence
offence like adultery should not be punished a penalty of death by stoning.

"Their death sentences could be carried at any time. This is despite outrage both
in and outside Nigeria over the death sentences now regularly handed out in
Nigeria's Sharia courts. Neither seem not to have benefited from any legal
representation during their trials," she charged.

A pregnant Nigerian woman and her lover have been sentenced to death by stoning for
adultery in the latest such conviction under a harsh Muslim legal code, defence lawyers said
yesterday.

Newspapers said the court passed the death sentence after the woman's father, who was
against the relationship, complained that the original five-year jail term imposed on the couple
was too lenient.

The Upper Sharia court in the central Nigerian State of Niger sentenced Ahmadu Ibrahim and
Fatima Usman on Monday and gave them 30 days to appeal.

Usman, a divorced mother of two, is the third woman to be sentenced to death for adultery
since 2000, when the first of more than a dozen States in the predominantly Muslim northern
Nigeria adopted the strict Islamic sharia code.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal to a higher court.

"We are already studying grounds for appeal and we intend to get a higher court to overturn
the ruling based on the rule of law and other critical issues we will raise," defence lawyer
Hauwa Ibrahim said.

"We have sent somebody to obtain details of the ruling and also to talk to the couple to
ascertain the circumstances in which they were convicted."

Local newspapers said the court, located about 50km south-east of the Nigerian capital Abuja,
had originally sentenced the lovers to five years in prison in May.

But it increased the sentence after an appeal by Usman's father, who wanted his daughter to
marry someone else against her wish.

The reports said the father sued Ahmadu Ibrahim for damages when the man he wanted his
daughter to marry lost interest.

Under the sharia code, any relationship outside wedlock involving a divorcee is considered
adultery.

The population of Niger State, home of former military dictators Ibrahim Babangida and
Abdulsalami Abubakar, is evenly divided between Christians and Muslims and the adoption of
the sharia code has provoked strong resentment.

In March, another appeals court in north-western Sokoto State quashed a similar sentence on
Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu and acquitted her after the European Union led worldwide
appeals for clemency.

The third women sentenced to death, Amina Lawal, is on the run (see story below).

President Olusegun Obasanjo warned that Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of more than
120 million people, risked international isolation.

More than 3,000 people in the north have died in Muslim-Christian clashes in three years.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/31/1030508143138.html

Islamic courts in northern Nigeria handed down more execution sentences this week.
The latest was announced in the country's Niger state.

OFFICIALS in Nigeria's Niger state said Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman, both in their
30s, were sentenced for adultery after they confessed to having sexual relations while Usman
was married to another man. In the course of the extra-marital relationship, Usman became pregnant.

A lower Sharia court had previously sentenced the two to serve time in prison. They appealed their
sentences. In deciding their appeals this week, the Islamic court determined the earlier sentence was
not harsh enough and sentenced them both to death by stoning.

Ibrahim and Usman are the latest on a growing list of people who have been sentenced to death by
Sharia courts in northern Nigeria, where Niger and 11 other states have reintroduced the Islamic code
during the past two years.

This week, a man was sentenced to death in Jigawa state after he confessed to raping a
nine-year-old girl. Earlier this month, an Islamic appeals court in Katsina state upheld a death
sentence against Amina Lawal, a woman convicted of adultery for bearing a child out of wedlock.
Thus far, none of the stoning sentences has been carried out.

                                                 Not recognised

Sharia is not recognised by Nigeria's secular judicial system and the central government of President
Olusegun Obasanjo has repeatedly condemned its implementation, calling it unconstitutional. But many
in Nigeria, including women's groups, say the government has not done enough to stop its enforcement.

Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi is the National Coordinator for a Lagos-based group Women Advocates
Research Center, which has led a battle to stop Sharia executions. She tells VOA she believes the
growing number of sentences is a sign the government needs to take a more aggressive stance.
"The government has been very lukewarm on this issue," she said. "You have to accept this
issue whether you like it or not because it is going to become a very problematic matter. There must
be a universal standard. Even if we are saying that Sharia should exist in this country, it must be able
to pass through the universal standard of human rights and there must be a minimum standard to check our laws."

The reintroduction of Sharia in the north has been one of the main challenges facing President
Obasanjo, whose election in 1999 marked the end of nearly 16 years of military rule in Nigeria, Africa's
most populous country.

Thousands have been killed in clashes that have broken out between Muslims and Christians since
the Islamic code was first implemented, shortly after the transition to civilian rule.

Obasanjo, a Christian, plans to seek re-election next year. In the meantime, he is faced with the
task of avoiding further outbreaks of violence while ensuring that the country's secular laws are enforced.

                                             (Voice of America News)
 

                      The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
                                              Contact us for more information.
            
                                                       "The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now"