Breaking: Tinubu Grants Pardon to Herbert Macaulay, Top Babangida's Minister, Others

President Bola Tinubu's proposal to grant the presidential prerogative of mercy for 175 Nigerians in different categories before the Council of State was approved on Thursday, October 9.

It was learnt that the approval came after the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, conveyed Tinubu's recommendations, which was based on the report of the advisory committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, during the council meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja.

While the presidency was yet to publish the full names of the beneficiaries, The Punch reported that Tinubu granted pardons to one of the founding fathers of Nigeria, Herbert Macaulay, and former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd).

Also included in the report are members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four.

A source who is privy to the development disclosed that “Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two major ones on that list.” Macaulay is often referred to as the father of Nigerian nationalism. He was convicted by the colonial government on two occasions.

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Macaulay was first tried in 1913 when he was practising as a private surveyor for misappropriation of funds from an estate he managed, and was sentenced to prison. Historians have long debated the fairness of his prosecution.

Also in 1928, the Nigerian hero was convicted of sedition after his Lagos Daily News made an incendiary claim during the agitation of the Eleko (Oba of Lagos) and the so-called "gunpowder plot. He was jailed with hard labour for six months.

Another prominent Nigerian being granted a presidential pardon was Vatsa, a poet, an ex-minister of the FCT and a member of the Supreme Military Council, who was executed on March 5, 1986, by a firing squad. He was convicted of treason by a secret military tribunal after he was accused of plotting against the then-military head of state and childhood friend, Babangida.

For decades, the prosecution of Vatsa has remained controversial. There have been periodic calls to grant him a posthumous pardon.

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Source: Legit.ng