NIGERIA EXECUTE FIRST PRISONER SINCE 2006

Four men have been hung in Nigeria, despite a pending appeal on their sentences. Lawyers and the government have confirmed that the men had been sent to the gallows, the first state executions since 2006. A fifth man was also to be hung, but technicalities delayed his execution, reports the Washington Post (US). It is unclear if he was eventually killed, though some reports suggest as much. Two of the men were convicted of murder, said their lawyer, and had been on death row for sixteen years. There were pending suits at Nigeria’s appeal court and the lawyer said the state broke the law by going ahead with the executions. In 2011 most of Nigeria’s governors supported a return to state executions.-NEWS