In 2015, Sunday Jackson — a 29-year-old farmer and student from Dong Community in Demsa LGA, Adamawa State — went to tend his crops like every other day. But that day changed his life forever.
While working on his farm in Kodomti Community, Numan LGA, a herdsman, Buba Ardo Bawuro, reportedly led his cattle into Jackson’s farmland to graze on his crops. When Jackson confronted him, the herdsman allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed him twice.
Wounded and bleeding, Jackson managed to overpower his attacker, seize the knife, and in a desperate attempt to defend himself, stabbed him back. Bawuro later died from his injuries.
Instead of being treated as a victim who fought for his life, Sunday Jackson was arrested and charged with culpable homicide at the Yola High Court — an offence that carries a death sentence under Section 211 of the Penal Code.
He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. His appeals to both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court were unsuccessful, as both courts upheld the ruling.
According to Funke Adeoye, founder of Hope Behind Bars Africa, the prison reform NGO that provided legal aid to Jackson, one of the judges had actually dismissed the charges against him. However, he was convicted largely based on a confessional statement he made without legal representation.
Now, years later, Jackson’s case continues to draw national and international concern.
Civil society organisations maintain that the conviction failed to consider the clear circumstances of self-defence, and that justice has not been fairly served.
Recently, the public’s outrage intensified after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu granted presidential pardon and clemency to about 175 convicted criminals — including drug dealers and murderers — yet overlooked Sunday Jackson, whose only “crime” was defending his life on his own farm.
Meanwhile, a petition on Change.org, with over 56,999 signatures, continues to grow — calling on the President to show compassion and grant Sunday Jackson a presidential pardon.
“If hardened criminals can be forgiven,” many Nigerians are asking, “why can’t mercy be shown to a man who only fought to stay alive?”
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