The Council of State on Thursday approved the exercise of the presidential prerogative of mercy for 175 persons across various categories by President Bola Tinubu.
The decision came after the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), presented Tinubu’s recommendations based on the report of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy at Thursday’s Council of State meeting at the State House in Abuja.
Although the complete names of the recipients have yet to be released, our correspondent learned that pardons were issued to Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, and Maj. Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd.), a former FCT minister during the Babangida era.
Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four also benefit.
“Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two major ones on that list,” a source who attended the meeting told our correspondent.
Macaulay, known as the “father of Nigerian nationalism,” was twice convicted by colonial authorities in Lagos.
In 1913, while working as a surveyor in private practice, he was convicted for misappropriating cash from an estate he managed and sentenced to prison; historians have long contested the justice of that conviction.
In 1928, after his Lagos Daily News published inflammatory statements during the Eleko (Oba of Lagos) agitation, he was convicted of sedition in the so-called “Gunpowder Plot” case and sentenced to six months in prison with hard labor.
Vatsa, a poet, former FCT minister, and Supreme Military Council member, was murdered by firing squad on March 5, 1986, after a secret military trial convicted him of treason for allegedly plotting a coup against then-military dictator Ibrahim Babangida, a childhood friend.
The case has remained contentious for decades, with periodic calls for a posthumous pardon.
Out of the 175 recipients, 82 inmates received a full presidential pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, and seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, saying, “82 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 meeting, chaired by Tinubu, also ratified key appointments, including Dr. Aminu Yusuf from Niger State as Chairman of the National Population Commission and Tonge Bularafa as Federal Commissioner representing Yobe State in the Commission. Both appointments received unanimous approval.
