The Council of State on Thursday approved President Bola Tinubu’s recommendation for the presidential pardon of 175 Nigerians, including historic figures such as Herbert Macaulay, Major-General Mamman Vatsa (retd.), and members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four, executed during Nigeria’s military era.
The decision, reached at a meeting held at the State House, Abuja, followed a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who conveyed the report of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy to the Council.
Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said the Council approved clemency for 175 convicts across various categories.
“Eighty-two of the inmates were granted full pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment,” Sani disclosed, adding that the move reflects President Tinubu’s commitment to justice reform and correctional rehabilitation.
While the full list of beneficiaries has not been officially released, sources confirmed that the posthumous pardon extends to Macaulay — revered as the Father of Nigerian Nationalism — who was twice imprisoned by British colonial authorities on what historians describe as politically motivated charges.
He was jailed in 1913 for alleged misappropriation of estate funds and again in 1928 for sedition during the Eleko of Lagos crisis.
Also pardoned was Major-General Mamman Vatsa, a poet and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under the Babangida regime, who was executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, over an alleged coup plot.
His conviction and death have long remained one of the most controversial episodes in Nigeria’s military history, with recurring public appeals for posthumous justice.
Equally significant is the inclusion of members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four — environmental activists executed during the regime of late General Sani Abacha for their agitation against oil exploitation in the Niger Delta.
Their pardon is seen as symbolic recognition of the injustice they suffered and a reconciliatory gesture toward the Ogoni people.
The Council of State, chaired by President Tinubu, also ratified key federal appointments, including that of Dr. Aminu Yusuf from Niger State as Chairman of the National Population Commission, and Tonge Bularafa as Federal Commissioner representing Yobe State in the Commission. Both appointments were unanimously endorsed by the Council.
Comprising former Presidents, ex-Chief Justices of Nigeria, and serving governors, the Council of State advises the President on national matters, including the exercise of the prerogative of mercy.
The latest round of clemency marks one of the most symbolically loaded in recent years — blending justice reform with historical rehabilitation and national reconciliation.
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