South African Press Agency

Nigerian mom flees stoning

A pregnant woman sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court in Nigeria has fled her home, an official said on Friday.

 Safiya Tungar-Tudu, 33, was sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery by an Islamic court in the northwestern town of Gwadabawa, in Sokoto State, northwest Nigeria, on October 9.

 Earlier this week, she disappeared from her home, the state information commissioner Attahiru Mai-Akwai Gwadabawa said from Sokoto.

 "I heard of the escape, I was informed about it," Mai-Akwai Gwadabawa said, confirming a report in the Daily Trust newspaper.

 The Sokoto State government, which last year became one of a dozen northern Nigerian states to introduce Islamic law, or Sharia, will seek legal advice on what to do following Tungar-Tudu's flight, the official said.

 "Our resolve to carry out the punishment on her is not based on our personal whims but the desire to implement the Sharia," he said.

 "We will now wait for the opinion of Islamic lawyers on what the Sharia prescribes in a such a situation and we will abide by it," he added.

Adultery is under Islamic law punishable by stoning to death.

Nigerian human rights groups have condemned the death sentence passed on the woman, calling it a "war on the constitution" as well as a violation of her rights.