Abuja, 14 March, 2025 / 10:48 pm (ACI Africa).

In the spirit of the ongoing Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) are appealing to the country’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to grant amnesty to a farmer who was sentenced to death for killing a herdsman.

In a communique following their March 8-14 First Plenary Assembly, CBCN members weigh in on the death penalty that Nigerian courts have sanctioned as punishment for Sunday Jackson, a farmer from Nigeria’s Adamawa State, who allegedly killed a Fulani herdsman in 2015 in what he claims was a case of self-defence.

On March 7, Nigeria’s Supreme Court reportedly upheld the country’s February 2021 Adamawa High Court ruling that handed Jackson capital punishment for killing Buba Ardo Bawuro.

The sentencing followed the 2015 incident when 29-year-old Jackson, a farmer and student from Demsa Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State, who was working on his farm in Numan LGA challenged Mr. Bawuro for allowing his animals to feed on his crops.

The herdsman is said to have pulled out a knife, violently attacking and injuring Jackson. Despite his injuries, Jackson reportedly overpowered his attacker, and seizing the knife, stabbed Mr. Bawuro, who later succumbed to his wounds.

The Adamawa High Court judge reasoned that for failing to flee the scene after gaining advantage of his attacker and that he confessed that he indeed killed the herdsman, Jackson must also be put to death by hanging, a sentence that the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld in the March 7 ruling.

In their first 2025 CBCN Communique, Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops fault the death penalty, saying, “We reaffirm the stand of the Catholic Church that capital punishment is unacceptable (CCC2267).”

“We therefore make a passionate appeal to the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu especially in the light of the Jubilee Year of Hope, to grant pardon to Mr. Sunday Jackson,” CBCN members say in the communique shared with ACI Africa on Friday, March 14.

In appealing for Presidential pardon to relieve Jackson of the death penalty, Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops invoke the traditional spirit of the a Jubilee Year. They explain, “The Jubilee Year as enshrined in the Book of Leviticus 25 was a time of restoration, freedom and renewal.  It was a time when debts were forgiven, captives were released, and the land was given rest.”

“The Jubilee of Hope invites us to be agents of renewal, arising from restoration and freedom,” CBCN members say.

“We are called to be the light that dispels the darkness hovering over our land, which necessarily begins with each of us, from our homes to our Churches, from our workplaces to our government institutions,” they add in their communique following the March 8-14 Plenary Assembly at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) Resource Centre, Durumi Abuja.

The Catholic Bishops say that the desire for a “new” Nigeria must involve commitment to truth, justice and love, and add, “We, therefore, call on all to be true to our worship of God, eschewing external religiosity and competition geared towards religious superiority or supremacy.”

After Nigeria’s Supreme Court ruling to uphold Jackson’s capital punishment, other religious and civil societies have faulted the decision, and advocated for clemency.

For instance, a Wednesday, March 12 report, the Nineteen Northern States and FCT Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) appeal to Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State to pardon Jackson “in the exercise of his constitutional duties and the Prerogative of Mercy, and in the spirit of peace building and reconciliation, which both the state and the nation now desperately need.”

“Mr Sunday Jackson has truly been subjected to the excruciating pain of waiting for death in the midst of the shadow of death by the grave travesty of the misinterpretation of Section 23 of the Adamawa State Penal Code Laws and the unnecessary prolonged trial that lasted Six and half years, which ordinarily should not have lasted such a lengthy period,” the Nineteen Northern States and FCT CAN officials have been quoted as saying in a press statement.

They have added, “The Adamawa State Penal Codes, Section 23 provides inter alia: ‘Nothing is an offence which is done in the lawful exercise of the right of private defence.’ The Case at a Glance, Sunday Jackson was reportedly working on his farm when he was attacked.”

Meanwhile, in their latest collective statement, Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops share their deliberations on the state of correctional facilities in the country.

“We enjoin the Federal and State Governments to uphold fundamental rights of inmates, treating them with dignity and adopting non -custodial measures in deserving cases,” they say in the statement that CBCN Chairman, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji of Owerri Catholic Archdiocese, co-signed alongside Bishop Donatus Ogun of the country’s Uromi Catholic Diocese, CBCN Secretary.

In the communique, the Catholic Bishops in Nigeria urge the government to expedite the dispensation of justice, decongest the existing correctional centres by granting parole to well-behaved minor offenders, rehabilitate the existing facilities, and construct new correctional centres to ease overcrowding.

The Catholic Church leaders also laud the Nigerian government for some improvements in the country’s correctional facilities through the Nigeria Correctional Service Act 2019, which they say was a landmark in the history of prison services in Nigeria.

(Story continues below)

The Correction Act, CBCN members say, “was a shift from the perception of the prison as a centre for retribution to a correctional facility with focus on reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration.”

Other notable highlights of the CBCN communique include a call for unity and national integration, improved security, an enabling environment for job opportunities and facilitation of youth involvement in agricultural investments to boost food production.

Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops also caution the media against obsession with bad news and instead foster balanced reporting that gives space and time for positive endeavours. They encourage interfaith collaboration and networking, especially during the Lenten Season that has coincided with Ramadan.   

CBCN members urge Nigerians to embark on a journey of renewal towards a better Nigeria characterized with peace and prosperity.