By Our Reporter
ABUJA (PRECISE POST) – In a historic and humanitarian exercise of presidential mercy, President Bola Tinubu has granted posthumous pardons to Major General Mamman Jiya Vatsa and Herbert Macaulay, alongside the Ogoni Nine, while commuting sentences and bestowing national honours in a sweeping clemency announcement that has stunned the nation.
This was contained in a statement released Thursday on the X account of the Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Bayo Onanuga.
The statement recalls that Major General Vatsa, a poet and former minister, executed in 1986 over a controversial treason conviction under the Babangida regime, was among 17 people granted a presidential pardon. The decision followed the endorsement of the National Council of State, which convened in Abuja on Thursday.
Also pardoned posthumously was Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s founding nationalists and co-founder of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). Macaulay was convicted by British colonial authorities in 1913 in what many historians have called a political takedown. Though he died in 1946, the pardon clears his name after more than a century.
In another powerful gesture, President Tinubu formally pardoned the Ogoni Nine, including environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed by the Abacha regime in 1995. In addition, national honours were awarded to the Ogoni Four – Chief Albert Badey, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Samuel Orage, and Theophilus Orage – in what many see as long-overdue recognition.
Among the living, Farouk Lawan, a former House of Representatives member jailed for bribery, and three others — Mrs Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, Barrister Hussaini Umar, and Ayinla Saadu Alanamu — received pardons for demonstrating remorse and readiness to reintegrate into society.
President Tinubu also extended mercy to Nweke Francis Chibueze, serving a life sentence for cocaine trafficking, and Dr Nwogu Peters, who has served 12 out of a 17-year fraud sentence.
In total:
82 inmates were granted clemency,
65 had their prison terms reduced,
7 death-row inmates had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment,
15 ex-convicts were recommended for pardons,
11 of those were deceased, including the Ogoni Nine.
The recommendations came from the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM), chaired by Attorney General Prince Lateef Fagbemi, and endorsed by the National Council of State.
The Committee reviewed:
175 inmates,
62 applications on behalf of 119 individuals,
Focused on humanitarian grounds including old age, terminal illness, juvenile offenders, long-serving inmates with good conduct, and those who have acquired vocational skills or shown genuine remorse.
President Tinubu’s clemency package marks a bold shift towards restorative justice, human rights, and national healing, especially in addressing historic wrongs dating back to the colonial and military eras.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, had inaugurated the PACPM on January 15, 2025, underscoring the administration’s commitment to reforming the justice system.
