No fewer than 225 death row inmates are awaiting execution in correctional centres across Kaduna and Kano.

Checks in the two states indicated that 150 are in Kano, and 75 are in Kaduna prisons.

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) spokesperson in Kano, Musbahu Kofar-Nassarawa, disclosed in an interview that the 150 inmates included male and female inmates.

He complained that governors sometimes are reluctant to sign death warrants for death row inmates.

“We are facing challenges of prison congestion because some chief executives are not willing to sign the death warrant, resulting in some condemned inmates spending years awaiting execution,” Mr Kofar-Nassarawa added.

Shehu Abdullahi, Kano coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said there was a need for the authorities concerned to address the problem of condemned convicts spending years in jail.

“At times, these criminals revolt by attacking warders, even if the crime they commit demands execution,” he said.

A legal practitioner, Abdulrazaq Ahmed, said it amounted to an infringement on the rights of a condemned criminal to keep them for years without carrying out the penalty or commuting the sentence.

In Kaduna, the spokesperson for the state’s correctional service, Zaki Emmanuel, declined a request for comment.

(NAN)