President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a wide-ranging Presidential Pardon and Clemency covering 175 convicts and former convicts, including Maryam Sanda, illegal miners, and several high-profile individuals.

The announcement was made on Thursday following the presentation of a report by the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), during a Council of State meeting held at the State House, Abuja.

Among the notable beneficiaries of the pardon is Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death in 2020 for stabbing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, son of a former PDP National Chairman, to death.

According to the list released by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and strategy, Tinubu approved her release based on good conduct, remorse, and her embrace of a new lifestyle while in custody.

The statement further explained that her family had also pleaded for mercy, citing the welfare of her two young children.

Sandra is the daughter of an influential Abuja based business woman Maimuna Aliyu who was a former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans Plc.

Maimuna was nominated in 2017 for appointment into the Board of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, but was later dropped for separate corruption-related allegations. 

In what the statement described as a move to promote rehabilitation and reintegration, the President also granted clemency to 80 convicted illegal miners, most of whom were sentenced in 2024 to three years’ imprisonment.

Their release was tied to an undertaking signed by Senator Ikra Aliyu Bilbis, who pledged to take responsibility for their rehabilitation and empowerment.

The list further included drug offenders, elderly inmates, and individuals convicted of financial crimes, who either showed remorse, learned vocational skills, or suffered ill health and advanced age.

Onanuga said the clemency exercise was guided by justice, compassion, and fairness, and aimed to decongest prisons while rewarding good behavior among inmates.

“President Tinubu acted on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee after careful consideration of each case. The exercise demonstrates his commitment to a humane justice system that allows genuine reformation,” Onanuga said.

The presidential action also included posthumous pardons for Major-General Mamman Vatsa and the Ogoni Nine, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, and a historic exoneration of Sir Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists.