by Yommi Oni
President Olusegun Obas-anjo moved Tuesday to reassure the international community of his belief that an Islamic court in Sokoto State will spare a woman, Safiya Husaini from being stoned to death for adultery.
Speaking to a group of journalists in Rome yesterday, Obasanjo said he was concerned that "such a judgment could be given at all has certain implications both internally and externally," but he did not elaborate.
The sentence imposed on 35-year-old Safiya has caused an international outcry and brought pressure to bear on Obasanjo's government that it be lifted.
Safiya, who is unmarried and had a child last February, was found guilty of having sex outside marriage under the strict Islamic Sharia law that has been reintroduced in many northern Nigerian states since January 2000.
Zamfara was the first state to operate the Islamic law. Sokoto, Gombe, Kano, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna have since joined.
"What I want to say now is to reassure the international community, friends of Nigeria and the friends of Safiya that Safiya has appealed and I believe based on that appeal we should expect that justice will be done, justice that should gladden the heart of those who long that justice will be given to Safiya."
Obasanjo was addressing journalists on the sidelines of a UN agricultural development conference in Rome.
Safiya's appeal was adjourned last month to March 18 after she withdrew a statement that she had been raped and stated that her one-year-old daughter was fathered by a former husband.
International outcry against the death sentence has risen in recent times as various local and international organisations have appealed to the Nigerian authorities to have the verdict changed.
Recently, the European parliament passed a resolution condemning the ruling and called on the Obasanjo administration to review it.
In its resolution the parliament condemned all forms of religious intolerance 'in particular the northern Nigerian Islamic courts' selective justice that sentenced Safiya to death by stoning".
In the same vein, the Africa Leadership Forum (AFL) joined other national and international organisations to plead for leniency in Safiya's case.
Also last Christmas eve, about 3000 people in Italy held a vigil in front of the Nigerian Embassy in Rome to call on the government to spare Safiya's life.
The crowd included Italian Members of Parliament, members of humanitarian organisations as well as a delegation from Rome's City Council.
Safiya was condemned to death for adultery on October 9, last year by an Islamic court in Gwadabawa, Sokoto state.