• US Congressman Riley Moore urges pardon for Sunday Jackson, says death sentence for self-defence killing is unjust
• Jackson, a farmer, killed a Fulani herdsman during a violent farm attack in Adamawa, court ruled it was murder
• Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in March 2025, sparking renewed international pressure on Nigeria
A United States lawmaker, Congressman Riley M. Moore, has appealed to the Nigerian government to pardon Sunday Jackson, a farmer currently on death row for killing a Fulani herdsman during what he insists was an act of self-defence.
Moore made the call on Thursday during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on President Donald Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). According to him, sentencing Jackson to death despite clear claims of self-preservation is an injustice.
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“I would urge the Nigerian government to take a look at pardoning Sunday Jackson,” Moore said during the session. “He was defending his life against a Fulani militant. That militant died in the struggle, and now Jackson faces the death penalty. Where is the justice in that?”
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The case dates back to 2014, when Jackson was attacked on his farmland in Codonti Forest, Adamawa State, after a herdsman, Buba Bawuro, reportedly trespassed with cattle. Jackson told authorities that Bawuro drew a knife and stabbed him multiple times. In an attempt to defend himself, he overpowered the herdsman, seized the knife, and fatally stabbed him.
Despite maintaining that he acted to save his life, Jackson was arrested and charged with murder.
A Yola High Court sentenced him to death by hanging in 2021, a ruling the Supreme Court later affirmed. On March 7, 2025, Nigeria’s apex court upheld the conviction and the death sentence, keeping Jackson on death row.
Moore’s intervention has now renewed international attention on the case, with growing calls for Nigerian authorities to review the judgment and consider clemency based on the circumstances of the incident.
