NIGERIA: AMOSUN FREES 20 PRISONERS, COMMUTES 3 DEATH SENTENCES TO LIFE JAIL

January 1, 2013: In accordance with a clause in the 1999 Nigeria Constitution, which confers state governors with a Prerogative of Mercy, Governor Ibikunle Amisun of Ogun State has ordered the release of 20 prisoners currently serving various jail terms in various prisons across the state.
Yusuph Olaniyonu, the state commissioner of information and strategy, in a statement issued in Abeokuta, the state capital, indicated that the freed 20 prisoners were among those serving sentences of three years imprisonment and above with 12 months left and were adjudged to have good records and good conduct.
The statement gave the names of the released prisoners as follow: Opeoluwa Bankole, Kehinde Onifade, Saliu Raji, Gabriel Michael Paul, Lateef Opeoluwa, Abubakar Muhammed, Popoola Yekini, Waheed Ogunwale, Lukman Osikoya and Afolabi Odunaike.
Others are Sunday Nnao, Sylvester Oboki, Monday Nbom, Nurudeen Adeleke, Abubakar Abah, Sunday Isaac, Kehinde Rafiu, Sunkanmi Badejo, Abiodun Adetayo and Idris Adewuyi.
Also, relying on the governor’s power of Prerogative of Mercy under Section 212 subsection (1) of the 1999 Constitution and the recommendations of the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy, the governor commuted to life imprisonment three other prisoners who had already been put on death roll.
The three others whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment are Sunday Olatunji convicted for murder, Segun Ogunsanya and Michael Ebedinwe, both of whom were convicted for armed robbery. (Sources: businessdayonline.com, 01/01/2013)