President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has granted presidential pardon and clemency to 175 convicts and former convicts, including posthumous pardons for Major General Mamman Vatsa, environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other Ogoni leaders executed in 1995.
The decision followed recommendations from the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN). The committee cited remorse, good conduct, age, ill health, and participation in educational or vocational programmes as key reasons for clemency.
Among those pardoned were former lawmakers and public officials such as Farouk Lawan, Ayinla Saadu Alanamu, and Professor Magaji Garba, as well as several drug offenders, miners, and inmates serving long sentences. Notably, Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death in 2020 for the murder of her husband, received clemency after showing remorse and good behaviour in prison.
President Tinubu also granted posthumous pardons to nationalist Sir Herbert Macaulay, who was convicted by British colonial authorities in 1913, and to the “Ogoni Nine,” including Saro-Wiwa, in what the presidency described as a symbolic correction of historical injustices.
In total, 82 inmates received clemency, 65 had their sentences commuted, and 7 death-row inmates had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment. Two serving inmates and 15 former convicts—11 of whom are deceased—were fully pardoned.
The list includes individuals convicted of offences ranging from drug trafficking, fraud, and armed robbery to unlawful mining. Many beneficiaries had completed significant portions of their sentences or demonstrated reformation through skill acquisition and education in prison, including enrolment in the National Open University of Nigeria.
In a notable development, Senator Ikra Aliyu Bilbis signed an undertaking to oversee the rehabilitation and reintegration of the 65 illegal miners who benefited from clemency.
According to a statement by Presidential Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the clemency exercise reflects the administration’s commitment to justice tempered with mercy and to reforming the criminal justice system through rehabilitation rather than retribution.
