President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a presidential pardon and clemency for 175 individuals, following recommendations by the National Council of State, which met on Thursday, October 9, in Abuja.
In a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the pardon includes posthumous clemency for two historic figures like Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa and Herbert Macaulay, as well as forgiveness for several living persons, including former lawmaker Farouk Lawan, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, Barrister Hussaini Umar, and Ayinla Saadu Alanamu.
Vatsa, a poet and military officer, was executed in 1986 after being convicted of treason under the military regime. Nearly four decades later, he has now been granted a symbolic pardon. Similarly, Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s founding nationalists and co-founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), was posthumously pardoned for a conviction handed down by colonial authorities in 1913.
President Tinubu also granted clemency to 82 inmates, reduced the prison terms of 65 others, and commuted the death sentences of seven inmates to life imprisonment.
In a landmark gesture, the President also pardoned the nine executed Ogoni activists — Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine — and bestowed posthumous national honours on Chief Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage, and Theophilus Orage.
The exercise followed recommendations by the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM), chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
The committee, inaugurated in January 2025 by Senator George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, reviewed 294 cases. Its recommendations were based on criteria such as age (60 years and above), terminal illness, good conduct, youth (16 years and below), and demonstrated remorse.
