President Bola Tinubu has pardoned 175 convicts and ex-convicts across the country, including seven death row convicts whose sentences were making commuted to life imprisonment.
This was according to a statement issued on Saturday by the Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, after the decision was taken following the Recommendations I’m in of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, which is chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
The Presidency explained that the pardon was granted on grounds of remorse, good behavior, old age, ill health, vocational training acquisition, and enrollment in educational programs like the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
Of the 175 beneficiaries, two convicts were granted full pardons, 15 ex-convicts 11 posthumously were pardoned, 82 convicts were granted clemency, 65 had their sentences commuted, while seven death row convicts had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment.
Those pardoned were Dr. Nwogu Peters, jailed for fraud since 2013; Hon. Farouk Lawan, who served a five-year prison sentence for corruption; and Nweke Francis Chibueze, sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking.
President Tinubu also issued posthumous pardons to historic figures like nationalist Herbert Macaulay, executed former military officer Major-General Mamman Vatsa, and the “Ogoni Nine” Ken Saro-Wiwa and his comrades executed in 1995.
The Presidency said 40 convicted illegal miners in 2024 also benefited from the clemency exercise, alongside some prisoners jailed for drug-related offences and white-collar crimes.
One of the more notable cases was Maryam Sanda, who in 2020 was condemned to death for culpable homicide. Her sentence was commuted after her family appealed and there were reports of good behaviour, remorse, and active participation in rehabilitation programmes while in prison.
Others who were given commutation of sentence included Major S.A. Akubo, jailed for illegal removal of arms, and Professor Magaji Garba, immediate past vice-chancellor who was jailed for fraud.
The Presidency said the gesture is an expression of President Tinubu’s conviction in justice tempered with mercy, in line with global best practices of restorative justice.
Attorney-General Fagbemi presented the Presidential Advisory Committee report at the recent Council of State meeting chaired by the President.
The wide-ranging clemency exercise, from drug trafficking to historical injustices, is among the biggest exercises of presidential pardon in Nigerian democratic history.
