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Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says President Bola Tinubu abused presidential power of mercy by granting pardons and clemency to 175 people.
In a statement via his verified X handle on Sunday, Atiku said the move undermines the sanctity of justice and risks encouraging lawlessness.
He stated that the prerogative of mercy is meant to temper justice with compassion but had been “trivialised” by the latest round of pardons.
The Eastern Updates recalls that Tinubu on Thursday granted presidential pardons to 175 persons, including the late nationalist, Herbert Macaulay, the late Major General Mamman Vatsa, and Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death for murdering her husband.
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Atiku faulted the inclusion of people convicted of serious offences, stressing that the clemency list weakens public faith in the criminal-justice system and emboldens criminality.
According to him, clemency must not be allowed to become complicit with crime and diminish justice.
“Ordinarily, the power of presidential pardon is a solemn prerogative, a moral and constitutional instrument designed to temper justice with mercy and to underscore the humanity of the state.
“When properly exercised, it elevates justice and strengthens public faith in governance.Regrettably, the latest pardon issued by the Tinubu administration has done the very opposite,” he said.
The Presidency on Saturday released a comprehensive list of the beneficiaries of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidential pardon, clemency and commutation of sentences to 175 convicts and former convicts, which was released on Thursday after the National Council of State meeting.
A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, gave an exhaustive breakdown of the categories of the President’s prerogatives, comprising full pardons, posthumous pardons, clemency, sentence reductions and commutations from death to life imprisonment.
