'Approve death sentences'
2007-06-19 21:16
Kano - An agency tasked with implementing Islamic Sharia law in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi has called on the state governor to approve 43 death and amputation sentences.
The Sharia Commission urged the state's new governor Isa Yuguda, to sign off on the carrying out three death-by-stoning penalties and 40 amputations passed since 2002 "to serve as a deterrent to others".
"We call on the governor to ratify the sentences that were not approved by his predecessor to discourage people from engaging in immorality," the commission said in a statement received on Tuesday.
The 40 amputation sentences are for theft and eye-for-an-eye incidents while the three death penalties were passed for sexual offences.
Yunusa Rafin-Chiyawa, 36, was given the death sentence in 2002 for eloping and sleeping with his friend's wife, a case that attracted local and international media attention.
Umaru Tori, 45, was sentenced to death by stoning in 2004 for impregnating his 15-year-old stepdaughter while Jibrin Babaji, 22, was given the death sentence in 2002 for sodomy with a minor.
Approval must be given
Among the 40 amputation sentences, the one that attracted the most public attention was that of Hussaini Maidoya, 45, who was found guilty of chopping off the leg of his 30-year-old wife, Amina, over alleged infidelity. Maidoya is to lose a thigh.
Bauchi began Sharia law implementation in 2002, becoming one of a dozen northern states that have reintroduced a version of the Sharia legal code since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.
In a Nigerian Sharia state the governor must give his approval before punishments like death and amputation passed by Sharia courts are actually carried out.
The sharia legal system provides for amputation for theft and death by stoning for adultery and sodomy.