The panel that recommended the pardon of two former governors, Joshua Dariye Y jolly nyameHe also recommended the pardon of 24 other convicts who were still serving their prison sentences for various crimes, PREMIUM TIMES has learned.
Another 86 people who had finished serving their prison sentences were also recommended for clemency by the panel, led by the Federation Attorney General, Abubakar Malami. One of the 86 people obtained a posthumous presidential pardon.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how President Buhari approved pardons for Messrs. Dariye and Nyame, who had been convicted of stealing public funds while serving as governors.
Both men were sentenced to 14 years each and had only served about three years of their prison terms, the presidential advisory committee on the prerogative of mercy said in its final report obtained exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES.
According to the presidential committee, Dariye, 63, who ruled Plateau state from 1999 to 2007, was recommended for clemency “for life-threatening reasons of ill health and age.”
Nyame, 66, who ruled Taraba from 1999 to 2007, was recommended for clemency “for reasons of ill health and age”.
His pardon was condemned by many Nigerians and human rights groups who argued that such action only encourages corruption of public officials.
“Clearly, the Dariye/Nyame pardon dramatizes the fact that regimes rebuke the venality of their predecessors, only for them to succumb to the same set of vices when in office,” PREMIUM TIMES wrote in an editorial condemning the version.
Since then, a rights group, SERAP, has sued President Buhari and Mr. Malami and called for the pardon to be revoked.
Apart from the total of 112 people recommended for clemency, the panel also recommended clemency for 27 people. It also recommended reduced sentences for 13 people who were still serving prison terms. A further 10 people on death row were recommended sentences reduced to life in prison.
PREMIUM TIMES learned that of the total of 162 people for whom the panel recommended some type of pardon or sentence reduction, the state council only rejected three people. One of the three was Francis Atuche, former head of the PHB Bank, who was sentenced to 120 years in prison for embezzling bank funds.
Mr Atuche was “recommended for clemency on the grounds of life-threatening ill health”, but the recommendation was rejected by the council and President Buhari, this newspaper has learned.
See the full list of the 162 people recommended by the panel below.