Gambia on Saturday suspended its plan to execute two Nigerians, Micheal Ifunaya and Stanley Agbaeze, and nationals of some other African countries.
This is just as some Nigerians launched a drive to raise thousands of signatures for an online petition to President Goodluck Jonathan to pressurise him to save the death-row inmates.
Gambia President Yahya Jammeh had sparked international outrage, when he vowed to execute all 47 death-row prisoners by mid-September.
Jammeh succumbed to regional and domestic pressure on Saturday by pending executions of the remaining 38 inmates on death-row.
Jammeh had announced on August 19 that his government planned to execute all the prisoners on death-row by the middle of September. Nine of the original 47 inmates on death row were shot dead by firing squad on August 28. All nine had been convicted on murder charges.
Neighbouring countries such as Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal had pressured Gambia to stay the executions.
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