ABUJA, Nigeria — The Supreme Court docket of Nigeria has upheld the loss of life sentence for a Christian man who defended himself in opposition to an assault by Fulani herdsmen.
Calling the March 7 ruling a “horrendous miscarriage of justice,” lawyer and worldwide human rights advocate Emmanuel Ogebe mentioned in a press assertion that the unique trial choose substituted her opinion instead of info within the 2021 loss of life sentence handed to Sunday Jackson, who at the moment had been imprisoned for a number of years after herdsmen attacked his farm in Adamawa state.
“The choose had confused the info of the case leading to a horrendous miscarriage of justice, and as such it have to be voided,” the U.S.-based Ogebe mentioned. “From appellant’s temporary of argument, it’s patently clear that his constitutional proper and safety of self-defense was unjustly and injudiciously denied him by the trial choose.”
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Justice Fatima Ahmed Tafida, a Muslim, sentenced Jackson to loss of life on Feb. 10, 2021. Spiritual freedom advocates worry the upholding of the loss of life sentence will end in Jackson being killed in jail and referred to as for a state pardon and clemency.
Within the Fulani herdsmen assault on Jackson’s farm, one of many assailants stabbed him with a knife, which the Christian managed to grab and admittedly used to kill him, Ogebe mentioned.
“Regardless of accidents he sustained, Jackson overpowered his attacker, wresting the weapon from him and stabbed him as effectively, following which his attacker died,” Ogebe mentioned.
The trial choose misinterpreted the Nigerian Structure to imply Jackson had the choice of fleeing reasonably than combating, although the Structure clearly empowers residents to defend themselves, he mentioned.
“Certainly the trial choose contorted and distorted logic on its head by saying the plaintiff ought to have run away whereas having admitted into proof that he was stabbed within the leg and thus was momentarily handicapped,” Ogebe mentioned.
The discrepancy between the choose’s reasoning and the info got here atop the failure of the conviction and sentence to be delivered throughout the constitutionally mandated 90 days from the tip of trial; the decision got here after 167 days, including to the “grievous miscarriage of justice,” he mentioned.
“This can be a unhappy day for Nigerians, as their capacity to guard themselves from violent attackers has been additional diminished,” Ogebe mentioned.
Additionally contributing to the “textbook case of miscarriage of justice” was that Jackson awaited trial for a number of years for simply 5 days in court docket, he mentioned.
“As a substitute of a five-day trial, he spent six years in custody in a non-controversial trial through which he didn’t deny that the loss of life of the deceased occurred on account of an altercation,” Ogebe mentioned. “Having spent all this time, Mr. Jackson was additional subjected to 167 days of agonizing look forward to judgment as as to if he must be freed or hanged in violation of constitutional protections in opposition to such protracted delays.”
Jackson had been charged below Part 211 of the Adamawa State Penal Code for deliberately killing the Fulani assailant, recognized as Ardo Bawuro.
Leaders of the Christian Affiliation of Nigeria (CAN) expressed concern that the nation’s highest court docket may settle for a ruling rife with obvious proof of discrimination in opposition to a Christian who will probably be hanged to loss of life after being attacked by an armed herdsman with out provocation and in self-defense.
CAN Chairman John Joseph Hayab and Bishop Mohammed Naga, the affiliation’s secretary normal for northern Nigeria, mentioned it was painful that each the Court docket of Attraction and Supreme Court docket upheld the sentence of loss of life by hanging. In addition they cited the trial choose misinterpreting Part 23 of the Adamawa State Penal Code Legal guidelines to imply that Jackson ought to have fled and never fought in self-defense.
“It’s a distortion of logic to recommend that the defendant ought to have run away, regardless of admitting into proof that he was stabbed within the leg,” they mentioned in a press assertion.
The CAN leaders appealed to Adamawa Gov. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri to “kindly train his constitutional duties and ‘prerogative of mercy,’ and within the spirit of peace constructing and reconciliation, which each the state and the nation now desperately want, to please pardon Sunday Jackson.”
“Mr. Sunday Jackson has really been subjected to the excruciating ache of ready for loss of life within the midst of the shadow of loss of life by the grave travesty of the misinterpretation of Part 23 of the Adamawa State Penal Code Legal guidelines and the unnecessarily extended trial that lasted six-and-a-half years, which ordinarily shouldn’t have lasted such a prolonged interval,” they mentioned.
Nigeria is ranked No. 7 on Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Checklist record of the 50 worst international locations for Christians, remaining among the many most harmful locations on Earth for followers of Jesus. Of the 4,476 Christians killed for his or her religion worldwide throughout the reporting interval, 3,100 (69%) had been in Nigeria, in line with the WWL.
“The measure of anti-Christian violence within the nation is already on the most attainable below World Watch Checklist methodology,” the report said.
Within the nation’s northcentral zone, the place Christians are extra frequent than they’re within the Northeast and Northwest, Islamic extremist Fulani militia assault farming communities, killing many a whole bunch, Christians above all, in line with the report.
Jihadist teams equivalent to Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), amongst others, are additionally lively within the nation’s northern states, the place federal authorities management is scant and Christians and their communities proceed to be the targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings, in line with the report. Abductions for ransom have elevated significantly in recent times.
The violence has unfold to southern states, and a brand new jihadist terror group, Lakurawa, has emerged within the northwest, armed with superior weaponry and a radical Islamist agenda, the WWL famous. Lakurawa is affiliated with the expansionist al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.
This text was initially revealed at Christian Day by day Worldwide–Morning Star Information
