Controversy still dogs President Bola Tinubu’s recent award of presidential pardons to prisoners throughout Nigeria, over a week after the announcement. Although most civil society groups condemned the pardon of those convicted of grievous offenses, legal professionals insist that the president was acting within his constitutional authority.
President Tinubu’s exercise of prerogative of mercy was lawful and fully supported by the 1999 Constitution, some senior lawyers, such as Mohammed Ndarani (SAN), contended. They urged critics to pursue constitutional amendment instead of challenging the president’s authority.
The prerogative of mercy is a discretionary authority conferred on the governors and the president by the Constitution. Anybody who feels otherwise should go to the National Assembly for amendment,” Ndarani stated. Presidential pardon, he explained, was an international practice and any democratic system.
Meanwhile, the Federal Attorney-General’s Office clarified that none of the prisoners pardoned in the ongoing exercise had been released, as the exercise remained subject to final administrative verification to determine full compliance with the law.
Meanwhile, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has recorded its highest-ever yearly drug seizure of 4,262,376.56 kilogrammes of illegal drugs beating its record of 2.7 million kg in 2024. It also arrested 17,793 suspects, securing 3,322 convictions this year alone.
NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi said 14,519 suspects were arrested and 2,424 convicted from January to September 2025. The organisation also destroyed 538 hectares of cannabis farms and seized tonnes of cocaine, heroin, tramadol, codeine syrup, and methamphetamine.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in collaboration with the NDLEA connected drug trafficking with other organised crimes including human trafficking, illegal mining, and terrorism financing.
UNODC Country Representative Cheikh Ousman Toure urged more synergy between the federal and state governments in tackling the increasing threat, praising Chairman of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd.), for his “strategic and courageous” leadership of the anti-drug war in Nigeria.
