By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata
President Bola Tinubu has granted presidential pardon and clemency to 175 convicts, including high-profile figures, death row inmates, and posthumously honoured Nigerians.
A statement by presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga on Saturday said the list includes two inmates released, 15 pardoned (11 posthumously), 82 granted clemency, 65 whose sentences were commuted, and seven death row inmates whose sentences were reduced to life imprisonment.
Among those posthumously pardoned are Major General Mamman Vatsa, executed in 1986 over an alleged coup, and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, alongside the Ogoni Eight.
Nationalist Sir Herbert Macaulay was also honoured.
Living beneficiaries include Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death in 2020 for killing her husband, who received clemency on humanitarian grounds, and ex-lawmaker Farouk Lawan, convicted of corruption.
The recommendations were made by the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, based on good conduct, remorse, and health considerations.
Onanuga said the decision reflects Tinubu’s “commitment to justice tempered with mercy” and efforts to promote rehabilitation and national healing.
