Stoning sentences surge in Nigeria

Victims are pawns in ideological split between regions

By D'Arcy Doran,

 LAGOS, Nigeria - When her time to die comes, convicted adulteress Amina Lawal will be buried up to her neck in sand. When only her head remains exposed, those watching will be invited to throw stones until the 30-year-old single mother is dead.

 ''As they throw, they will be calling `God is great,''' court official Ibrahim Abdullahi says, outlining procedure for the first in a sudden string of executions by stoning in Nigeria's Islamic northern states.

 Lawal and others of a growing number of men and women on Nigeria's Shariah death row have emerged as pawns in a political battle for power in Nigeria - one that high-ranking civil and religious figures feel has gotten out of control.

 The rush in Nigeria's north to impose the harshest possible sentences under Islamic law - newly adopted by a dozen states - has laid bare the split between Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

 The death sentences have become an act of defiance by northern leaders against President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom they accuse of neglect, and against the south as a whole, where Nigeria's economic power lies.

 Southerners accuse the rulers of the mainly Muslim north of manipulating Islam to divide voters along religious lines - and to distract the people from their state governments' poor performance since military rule ended in Nigeria three years ago.

 On Aug. 22, a Shariah appeal court upheld Lawal's sentence of death by stoning for having sex outside of marriage. She gave birth more than nine months after divorcing. The father was dismissed for lack of evidence.

 The court postponed her execution to 2004 so she can wean her daughter. But with each day Wasila grows older, Lawal's life grows shorter.

 She remains in hiding, out of her lawyers' fear that someone might try to execute the judgment before her next appeal is considered Sept. 25. Abdullahi said if Lawal is stoned, authorities will make sure it is a spectacle. ''They will find a place that is open. So people can come and see it done. So others can see what she has done,'' he said.

 In the past month, four people in northern Nigeria have filed appeals against stoning death sentences: Lawal, a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl, and a couple sentenced for adultery. But no one has been stoned to death yet in Nigeria.

 Lawal's case provoked an international outcry. Government and human rights groups around the world have urged Obasanjo's government to intercede. The president has said he doesn't believe the sentence will be carried out - but will weep for Lawal if it is.

 Attorney General Kanu Agabi says government lawyers will assist with Lawal's appeal, but less than two weeks before her next court date, her lawyers say they have not been contacted by his ministry.

 The European Parliament's women's rights committee has called for a boycott of the Miss World pageant set for Nov. 30 in Nigeria's capital, Abuja. France and Belgium have already said they are withdrawing their pageant contestants.

 But northern state governments say international protests will not make them overturn the death sentences - because they are only accountable to God.

 ''The Muslim has the Koran as his first constitution,'' said Usman Zakari Dutse, the government spokesman for Jigawa state, where the child rapist has been sentenced to death by stoning. ''We don't care what international organizations say.''

 This story ran on page A9 of the Boston Globe on 9/15/2002.

� Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.