COVID-19: President Buhari grants amnesty in order to decogest prisons.

President Muhammadu Buhari has granted pardon and clemency to 2, 600 inmates of the Custodial Centres of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) as part of measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country. Interior minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this Thursday in Abuja.

While 70 of the inmates would be released in FCT, the rest are expected to be released by the state governors after convening a meeting of their individual committee on Prerogative of Mercy. Buhari grants pardon to Alli, Enahoro, Effiong, two others In a similar development, the president granted a presidential pardon to a former Governor of old Bendel State, late Prof. Ambrose Alli and foremost nationalist, late Chief Anthony Enahoro. The president also granted pardon to three other Nigerians, two of whom are ex-military officers according to Aregbesola. “I am pleased to inform you that five ex-convicts recommended for presidential pardon (by Buhari) have been so pardoned. They are late Prof Ambrose Ali, Late Chief Anthony Enahoro, ex Lt. Col. Moses Effiong, Major E.J. Olanrewaju and Ajayi Olusola Babalola. Prof Ali was the governor of the old Bendel State in the Second Republic (1978-1983) and a great progressive while Chief Enahoro was a foremost nationalist who moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence. “I must thank and commend President Buhari for demonstrating great statesmanship by pardoning these people who were part of the great Nigerian history”