Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has called on the Federal Government to withdraw and re-examine the list of 175 persons recommended for pardon by President Bola Tinubu.
The lawyer, who in a statement made available Thursday evening, did not dispute the president’s constitutional power to grant pardons, said the exercise should be reviewed “in the interest of justice and national morality.”
PUNCH Online reported that Tinubu recently granted pardon to Sir Herbert Macaulay, as well as 174 others, following approval by the Council of State.
Among the beneficiaries are notable figures such as Ken Saro-Wiwa, the environmental activist, and Major General Mamman Vatsa, who was executed in 1986 for alleged coup plotting.
The pardon list led to controversy, especially due to the inclusion of convicts like Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death in 2020 for killing her husband, and other inmates whose sentences were commuted or reduced, and ex-convicts deemed eligible by the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy.
Falana argued that the current list includes politically exposed persons, alleged drug barons, armed robbers, terrorists and people convicted of state offences such as culpable homicide and murder, and therefore requires urgent reappraisal.
The statement reads, “Following the recommendation of the Prerogative of Mercy Committee headed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi SAN, President Bola Tinubu recently granted pardon to 175 persons convicted for various offences.
“It is indisputable that the President is empowered by virtue of Section 175 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to exercise the grant of pardons, reprieves, and commutations of sentences to persons convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly.
“The list of pardonees includes convicted politically exposed persons, drug addicts and barons, armed robbers, and terrorists, as well as persons convicted for contravening state offences like culpable homicide, murder, obtaining by false pretences.”
