Buhari grants posthumous pardon to Ambrose Ali, Enahoro, others

the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has granted a presidential posthumous pardon to a former governor of old Bendel State, Prof. Ambrose Alli, and a foremost nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro.

Buhari also extended the gesture to former Lt. Col. Moses Effiong, Major E.J. Olanrewaju and Ajayi Babalola.

Disclosing this at a news conference at the Nigeria Correctional Service headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, explained that the President had also approved the release of 2,600 inmates as part of measures to decongest the correctional facilities and curb the coronavirus spread.

Ali, who was the governor of the old Bendel State in the Second Republic (1978-1983), was sentenced to 100 years in prison by a military tribunal under the Buhari junta for allegedly misappropriating N983,000 for a road project.

Enahoro, a foremost nationalist who moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence, was tried for treasonable felony and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment but reduced on appeal. He died in December 2010 aged 87.

Effiong was among 13 officers convicted and killed by a firing squad for plotting a coup against the military government of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

Aregbesola stated that 70 inmates of the Kuje Custodial Centre were scheduled for release immediately while the remaining 2,530 inmates would be released in collaboration with state governments.

He said, “A total number of 2,600 inmates spread across our various custodial centres qualify to benefit from the amnesty.

“These include 885 convicts who could not pay their fines totalling N21.4m, which the government will pay on their behalf to enable them to get their freedom.

“From this number, 41 inmates are federal convicts, two of whom have been granted the pardon. Five ex-convicts recommended for presidential pardon had been so pardoned. They are the late Prof. Ambrose Ali, the late Chief Anthony Enahoro, Lt. Col. Moses Effiong, Major E.J. Olanrewaju and Ajayi Olusola Babalola.”

Speaking on the occasion, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Justice Abubakar Malami, said 39 of the inmates were granted clemency – four of which are in the Kuje Custodial Centre.

Malami said the government’s action was in line with the advice of the United Nations, which encouraged countries of the world to reduce the population of prisons so as to encourage social distancing.

The Controller General of NCoS, Ja’afaru Ahmed, said there were 73,756 inmates in custodial centres all over the country with 51,983 of them on the awaiting trial list.