The Council of State on Thursday approved the exercise of the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy for 175 persons across various categories.
The approval followed a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who conveyed President Bola Tinubu’s recommendations based on the report of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy during the Council of State meeting held at the State House, Abuja.
Although the full list of beneficiaries has not yet been released, it was learnt that the President granted posthumous pardons to Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, and Maj.-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd.), former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under the Babangida regime.
Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four were also named among the beneficiaries.
A source who attended the meeting confirmed, “Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two major ones on that list.”
Macaulay, often described as the father of Nigerian nationalism, was twice jailed by the colonial government in Lagos. In 1913, he was convicted for alleged misappropriation of estate funds and, in 1928, sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for sedition following his newspaper’s publication during the Eleko of Lagos crisis.
Maj.-Gen. Vatsa, a poet, soldier, and member of the Supreme Military Council, was executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, after a secret military tribunal convicted him of plotting a coup against then Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, his childhood friend. His case has remained one of the most controversial in Nigeria’s military history, with periodic calls for a posthumous pardon.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State said:
“Eighty-two of the inmates were granted full pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The decision underscores the President’s commitment to justice and correctional reform.”
The latest exercise forms part of the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to decongest correctional centres and promote fairness within the justice system.
