The Council of State on Thursday approved the exercise of the presidential prerogative of mercy for 175 persons across various categories.
The decision followed a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who conveyed President Bola Tinubu’s recommendations based on the report of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, at Thursday’s Council of State meeting held at the State House, Abuja.
Although the full names of the beneficiaries are yet to be published, our correspondent gathered that pardons were granted to one of Nigeria’s founding fathers, Herbert Macaulay and former FCT minister in the Babangida regime, Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd).
Members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four are also beneficiaries.
“Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two major ones on that list,” Punch said.
Macaulay, often called the “father of Nigerian nationalism,” 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.