The Presidency has explained that President Bola Tinubu’s decision to grant presidential pardon and clemency to 175 Nigerians and foreigners, including the late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the late Major General Mamman Vatsa, and Nigeria’s nationalist icon Sir Herbert Macaulay, was aimed at promoting fairness, justice, and national reconciliation.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency said the gesture also sought to correct historical wrongs and decongest the country’s correctional facilities.
According to Onanuga, the decision followed the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
He said the beneficiaries included individuals who had demonstrated remorse, good conduct, or significant reformation during incarceration, while others were considered based on old age, ill health, or historical injustice.
“Illegal miners, white-collar convicts, remorseful drug offenders, foreigners, Major General Mamman Vatsa, Professor Magaji Garba, capital offenders such as Maryam Sanda, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the other Ogoni Eight were among the 175 convicts and former convicts who received President Tinubu’s mercy,” Onanuga said.
He added that the President’s decision to pardon the Ogoni Nine, executed in 1995 during the late Gen. Sani Abacha regime, and Vatsa, executed in 1986 over an alleged coup attempt, was part of efforts to “heal old wounds and promote national unity.”
Tinubu also approved a posthumous pardon for Sir Herbert Macaulay, who was barred from holding public office in 1913 by British colonial authorities after being convicted of misappropriation of funds. The Presidency described the move as “a correction of historical injustice against one of Nigeria’s founding fathers.”
The statement noted that the President’s action represented one of the most extensive exercises of the prerogative of mercy since Nigeria’s return to democracy.
Among the living beneficiaries are Farouk Lawan, a former lawmaker jailed for corruption; Professor Magaji Garba, former Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Gusau; and Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death in 2020 for killing her husband.
Onanuga explained that Sanda’s clemency followed appeals based on her remorse, good conduct, and the need to care for her two children.
Out of the 175 beneficiaries, two inmates and 15 former convicts (including 11 deceased) received full pardons, 82 inmates were granted clemency, 65 had their sentences commuted, while seven death sentences were reduced to life imprisonment.
The Presidency said the exercise, conducted in line with Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), was carefully reviewed and approved by the Council of State before Tinubu’s final endorsement.
The move, it added, was consistent with the administration’s justice reform agenda aimed at ensuring humane treatment of prisoners and decongesting correctional centres across the country.
Onanuga disclosed that Senator Ikra Aliyu Bilbis has been tasked with overseeing the rehabilitation and empowerment of pardoned illegal miners as part of the government’s reintegration initiative.
“This is not a casual act of mercy,” the presidential spokesman said. “It is a deliberate and well-considered effort to promote healing, fairness, and justice in the spirit of national unity.”
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