President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday granted a posthumous presidential pardon to late Professor Ambrose Ali and late foremost nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro.
Professor Ali, who was Governor of old Bendel State in the Second Republic (1978-1983), was jailed by a military tribunal under the military government of then Major General Muhammadu Buhari and sentenced to 100 years in prison for allegedly misappropriating N983,000 in funds for a road project.
Chief Enahoro, who moved the motion for Nigeria’s
independence, was twice jailed for sedition by the
colonial government, for an article mocking a former Governor and then for a
speech allegedly inciting Nigerian troops serving in the British Army.
The Presidential pardon was also granted to ex-Lieutenant
Colonel Moses Effiong, Majority EJ Olanrewaju, and Ajayi Olusola Babalola, who
were ex-convicts.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, who made this known at a world press
conference to announce Buhari’s amnesty to the inmates, explained that the
president had also approved the release of 2,600 inmates across various
custodial centres in the country in a move to decongest the custodial centres.
Speaking at the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) Headquarters in Abuja,
Aregbesola, stated that about 250 correctional facilities are inadequate to
house the over 74,000 inmates in our custody presently.
The Minister who was accompanied by the Comptroller General of the Nigerian
Correctional Service, Jaafaru Ahmed, thereafter visited the Kuje Custodial
Centre, where 41 inmates were released from the incarceration.