NIGERIA LEADER PARDONS MAN ON DEATH ROW FOR 22 YEARS

President Umaru Yar'Adua

18 November 2008 :

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua pardoned a man who spent more than two decades on death row for armed robbery.
Yar'Adua pardoned Ibrahim Aliyu, 57, who had been on death row for 22 years following three years in detention awaiting trial for armed robbery.
The pardon comes three weeks after global rights group Amnesty International said the Nigerian justice system was so flawed that it was sentencing people to death who may be innocent and that many suspects were waiting years to be tried.
He also wrote to Rivers state Governor Rotimi Amaechi to ask him to pardon 90-year old Nze Enweremadu, who spent nine years awaiting trial for murder.
 

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