By Abiola Olawale
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has exercised his constitutional powers to grant presidential pardons to 175 individuals, including the revered Nigerian nationalist Herbert Macaulay.
It was gathered that the development happened during the National Council of State that was held at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.
Although the presidency has yet to release the full list of the recipients of the presidential pardon, it was gathered that Tinubu invoked the pardon under Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution.
Herbert Macaulay, often hailed as the “Father of Nigerian Nationalism,” was said to be one of the recipients.
Also, former FCT minister in the Babangida regime, Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd), was said to be one of the recipients.
Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four are also beneficiaries.
Recall that Macaulay was twice convicted by the colonial authorities in Lagos.
In 1913, while in private practice as a surveyor, he was tried for misappropriating funds from an estate he administered and sentenced to prison; historians have long debated the fairness of that prosecution.
In 1928, after his Lagos Daily News published incendiary claims during the Eleko (Oba of Lagos) agitation, he was convicted of sedition in the so-called “Gunpowder Plot” case and jailed for six months with hard labour.
Vatsa, a poet, former FCT minister and member of the Supreme Military Council, was executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, after a secret military tribunal convicted him of treason over an alleged coup against then military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, his childhood friend.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna state explained, “82 of the inmates were granted full pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
“The decision underscores the President’s commitment to justice and correctional reform.”
