KEY POINTS
- Pardons and commuted sentences are the two kinds of clemency.
- Emphasis on the inmates with simple offences and long serving death row convicts.
- Both gesture and restorative justice fit within Christmas.
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke has exercised his prerogative of mercy to pardon 53 convicts including a boy sentenced to death for stealing chicken and eggs. This is the Christmas 2024 after the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy recommended it.
Adeleke, in a statement by his spokesman Olawale Rasheed, said the governor’s intention to rehabilitate persons who have fulfilled a larger part of their term is a philanthropic gesture.
Clemency breakdown and significant cases
One is Segun Olowokere, who was given the death sentence for stealing chicken and eggs when he was 17 in 2010. They were among other people who had been convicted for robbing a poultry farm in Oyan, Osun State.
Governor Adeleke commuted sentences and also granted outright pardons as follows:
Among them, 30 inmates with simple offences were granted reconciliation in full.
Outright pardons were given to 12 inmates convicted of simple offences.
Four of the death row inmates, including Olowokere, were given outright release.
The commutation of one death sentence to 15 years imprisonment, was recommended.
A total of six other death sentences were commuted to outright release.
Compassion and reform gestured
This act of clemency represents Governor Adeleke’s determination to enhance justice with mercy. ‘Inmates serving substantial portions of their sentences for simple offences or inmates sentenced to death for 10 years or more spent in custody may hold the prerogative of mercy,’ the governor said.
Furthermore, Nigerian Correctional Service has acknowledged clemency letters dated December 24, 2020. The governor’s Christmas gesture comes as a statement of his commitment for second chances and rehabilitation of convicts.
The possibility of compassion and also second chances becoming a positive feature in broader society is presented by Governor Adeleke’s initiative.
