President Bola Tinubu has granted pardons and clemency to 175 Nigerians and foreigners, including the late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Major General Mamman Vatsa, and other members of the “Ogoni Nine,” the Presidency announced Saturday.
The move aims to promote fairness, justice, and national unity, according to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy. He described the exercise as one of the most extensive uses of the presidential prerogative of mercy in Nigeria’s history.
The Presidency said the pardon also corrected a historical injustice against Sir Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists. In 1913, British colonial authorities banned Macaulay from public office after convicting him of misappropriation of funds.
Onanuga explained that the pardons followed the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
The President granted clemency to individuals who showed remorse, demonstrated good conduct, acquired vocational skills, or enrolled in rehabilitation programs. Others received pardons due to old age, ill health, or historical injustices.
“Illegal miners, white-collar convicts, remorseful drug offenders, foreigners, Major General Mamman Vatsa, Major Akubo, Professor Magaji Garba, capital offenders such as Maryam Sanda, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the other Ogoni Eight all received President Tinubu’s mercy,” the statement said.
The posthumous pardons include Major General Mamman Vatsa, executed in 1986 for alleged coup plotting, and Ken Saro-Wiwa with eight other Ogoni activists executed in 1995 under the Abacha regime. Onanuga said the move aims to heal old wounds and foster national unity.
Among the 175 beneficiaries, two inmates and 15 former convicts (11 posthumously) received full pardons. The government granted clemency to 82 inmates, commuted sentences for 65, and reduced death sentences to life imprisonment for seven inmates.
Living beneficiaries include Farouk Lawan, former lawmaker convicted of corruption; Professor Magaji Garba, former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Gusau; and Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death in 2014 for killing her husband. The Presidency cited her remorse, good behavior, and care responsibilities for her two children.
The list also includes convicted drug traffickers, illegal miners, and white-collar offenders who showed good conduct or participated in educational and rehabilitation programs.
The committee presented its report at Thursday’s Council of State meeting chaired by President Tinubu. It recommended commuting some death sentences to life imprisonment for inmates who showed remorse and had long periods of confinement.
The Presidency stressed that Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) empowers the President to grant pardons after consulting the Council of State. Officials said Tinubu’s decision followed careful review and consultation.
Reports indicate that the move also aims to decongest prisons and promote humane justice reforms. Senator Ikra Aliyu Bilbis will oversee the rehabilitation and empowerment of pardoned illegal miners.
Credit: PUNCH
