Womens Economic Rights> UPDATE ON DEATH BY STONING

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NA'ABBA TO MEDIATE IN SAFIYA'S CASE

The House of Representatives Committee on Women and Youths Development has 
intervened in the case of a woman, Safiya Hussaini sentenced to death by a 
Sharia court for committing adultery saying it had persuaded the Speaker, Hon 
Ghali Umar Na'Abba to mediate in the matter.
This was disclosed yersterday by the Hon. Janet Adeyemi, when the Chairman of 
the Women and Youths Development Committee Hon. Florence Aya, briefed newsmen 
on the forthcoming public hearing on state of protection and promotion of 
rightsof women and youths in Nigeria.
Adeyemi said "we in the House Committee on Women and Youths Development have 
gotten the words of the speaker and his deputy to co-operate on this issue, we 
are going to mediate, but we don't want to mediate in such a way that it will 
generate additional controversy.  A life is involved and I can assure that 
steps we would will eventually bring good result.
She cautioned against sectionalising the matter because it involved a 
constitutional issue which also bothered on religious affairs.
The position of the House is coming on the heels of a showdown between the 
Federal Government and the Sokoto Government over the matter.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige 
(SAN) had at the weekend told a group of Nigerian Lawyers that the Federal 
Government would not allow the woman to be stoned to death.  But the Sokoto 
State Commissioner for Justice, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar Sanyinna, countered that 
the Federal Government had no  such powers to prevent the death of Safiya.
Adeyemi said the issue of Sharia as it involves life had to be looked into so 
as to respect the United Nationa Convention on the Right of Life and Respect 
for the fundamental human life.
She told journalists that the objective of the public hearing was to identify 
critical issues and problems affecting th rights and welfare of women and 
youths in Nigeria and the efforts of governmental and non-governmenta sectors 
in responding to them.  She said the public hearing would identify strategies 
for policies and legislative action towards the better empowerment of women and 
youths in Nigeria.



For the Attorney General of the Federation to say that the Federal Government 
would not allow the execution of judgement passed against Safiya for committing 
the offence is contrary to the constitution of the country"
Sokoto State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Alhaji Aliyu 
Abubakar Sanyinna, contesting the Federal Government's intervention in the 
death sentence passed on Safiya.

The Punch, Friday, November, 23, 2001.

SHARIA APPEAL COURT STOPS SAFIYA,S EXECUTION. 

Reprieve came on Thursday for Safiya Husseini Tungar-Tundun, sentenced to death 
by stoning, by the Gadabawa Sharia Court, Sokoto State, when the State Sharia 
Court of Appeal stopped her execution.  She was convicted for committing 
adultery while the male suspect was discharged.

The Appeal Court stopped the execution of the sentenced to enable it hear the 
appeal filed before it by the convict.  When the case came up for mention on 
Thursday,  her counsel, Abdulkari-Imam Ibrahim, urged the court to "stop the 
judgment passed by the Gwadabawa Upper Shaira Court in order to entertain our 
appeal"  In his submission, counsel to the state government, Alhaji Muhammed 
Barau Kamarawa, opposed the submission of Tungar-Tundun,s counsel on the ground 
that she had been given 30 days within which to appeal and for the execution of 
the judgment to be carried out after weaning her child.

According to Kamarawa "there is no need for the prayer since the lower court 
had given the complainant an ultmatum and 30 days to appeal if she was not 
satisfiead with the judgment".  In his ruling, Khadi, Mohammed Bello Rabah 
ordered that the judgment of Geadabawa lower court be stopped.

He cited sections 241 and 203 of the Sharia penal code to enable the court hear 
the appeal of the complainant.  No date has been fixed for hearing.  Tungar-
Tundun was sentenced to death by stoning on October, 19, for being pregnant 
without a husband, contrary to Sharia Law.

She was sentenced accordingly based on her confession that she was impregnated 
by one Mallam Yakubu Abubakar.  The judge, Alhaji Muhammadu Bello Sanyinnawa, 
however, discharged Abubakar for want of evidence.