The Council of State on Thursday endorsed President Bola Tinubu’s recommendation to grant presidential pardon to 175 persons, including nationalist Herbert Macaulay and former FCT minister Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd).
The Council of State on Thursday approved President Bola Tinubu’s recommendation to grant presidential pardon to 175 persons, including nationalist Herbert Macaulay and former FCT minister Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd).
Attorney-General of the Federation Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) presented the report at the meeting held at the State House, Abuja. Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four were also among the beneficiaries.
Out of the 175 names approved, 82 inmates received full pardons, 65 had their sentences reduced, and seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, who briefed reporters after the meeting, said the decision “underscores the President’s commitment to justice and correctional reform.”
Macaulay, often called the “father of Nigerian nationalism,” was twice convicted by colonial authorities, while Vatsa was executed in 1986 after a controversial coup trial during General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime.