Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has pardoned 12 inmates on death row and commuted the death sentences of six others to life imprisonment.
A statement on Tuesday by the spokesman of Kano Command of the Nigeria Correctional Service, SC Musbahu Lawan Nassarawa, said the governor also pardoned four female inmates with long-term sentences based on their good behaviour and industry as recommended by the Service. The governor also gave N5,000 fare to each released inmate to enable them to reunite with their families.
Nassarawa said the Chairman of the Prerogative of Mercy Committee, Abdullahi Garba Rano, and Controller of Corrections, Kano State Command, Sulaiman Mohd Inuwa, thanked the governor for using the power conferred on him by the constitution to release the inmates with good behaviour on the recommendation of the committee and the correctional service.
Inuwa was quoted to have called on the released inmates to be good ambassadors of the Nigerian Correctional Service to society and to stay away from any act that can lead them back to the crime. According to the statement, some of the pardoned inmates have spent 25 years awaiting execution.
In audio interviews with some of the pardoned inmates shared by the prison’s spokesman, a 69-year-old man, who said he had spent 23 years awaiting execution, appreciated the governor and the correctional service for his release and that of others.
At least 2719 people are currently on death row in 12 correctional facilities across the country. According to Nigerian human rights groups, death row inmates in Nigerian correctional facilities are held under inhuman and degrading conditions. Many are held in tiny, dark, and filthy cells, with almost no ventilation, and some spend their time in solitary cells. They also lack adequate food and medical care.
Nigeria is one of the countries that still retain the use of capital punishment in its criminal law and penal code. Death penalty sentences are imposed for the crime of armed robbery, murder, rape, terrorism-related offenses, treason, and kidnapping while adultery, blasphemy, and homosexuality also carry the death penalty in the northern region where Sharia law applies.
