The Presidency has assured Nigerians that the Council of State’s pardoning of two former governors, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, as well as 157 others, will not derail the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s ongoing anti-corruption drive.
Malam Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, gave the assurance in a statement issued late Wednesday evening in Abuja.
According to Shehu, the president assured the people that “nothing done here was intended to attain a political objective or convey a revisionist message on the persistent campaign against corruption that he has effectively and clearly led by personal examples.”
Section 175 (1) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, according to Shehu, empowers the President to use his constitutional powers “to award any individual concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly a pardon, either free or subject to justifiable conditions;”
“To grant respite, either for an indefinite or a specified period of the execution of any punishment imposed on that person for such an offence;
“Substitute a less severe form of punishment imposed on that person for such an offence or remit the whole or any part of any punishment imposed on the person for such an offence or of penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to the state on account of such an offence,” he said.
Shehu explained that on August 28, 2018, the Federal Government established the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM) with the mission of assisting the president in carrying out his constitutional responsibility of granting pardon or clemency to deserving convicts or ex-convicts.
He said the committee submitted its initial report in March 2020 and reconvened on Sept. 28, 2021 to deal with the plethora of pending presidential pardon and clemency applications from Nigerians all over the country.
According to him, these accrued cases followed the established process of applying for pardon or clemency first to the Correctional Service.
He said this must certify claims made, ”be they of life-threatening ill-health, (as in the cases of Governors Dariye, Nyame; John Joshua Uloh, Engr Umar Bamalli, Sa’adu Ayinla Alanamu, Charles Ihenatu, Akinwumi Ajayi and tens of others making the approved list of 159; or such cases arising from remorse and good conduct or plainly on the basis of compassion among other stated criteria.
“The PACPM members, under the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, followed up the recommendations with a visit to selected Correctional Centers in several states of the federation to “critically appraise and identify potential cases of convicts and ex-convicts before recommending them for presidential pardon/clemency and reduced sentences.”
He stated that in this round of the exercise, 412 inmates were interviewed and 162 were recommended to the Council of State by the President in the exercise of his powers, pursuant to Section 175 (2) which required that he should carry out this function after being “advised by the Council.”
The presentation to the Council of States meeting last week, which was attended by former Presidents, a former Chief Justice, 36 states, and the FCT along the lines of its statutory membership, was a culmination of a difficult procedure, according to the presidential aide.
He said the exercise was also regulated and guided by the law which was not in any way designed to achieve a political purpose.
“While it is natural that the cases of the ex-governors-two among many would excite political analysts coming at a time when elections are in the air, the president would at the same time have come across as insensitive and cruel to most people were he to have ignored very compelling cases recommended for pardon made to him because someone is a former governor.
“Even governors have the right to be treated fairly under the law,” the statement.
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