Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has granted state pardon to 31 inmates serving various convictions within the Nigerian Correctional Service.
The clemency was granted following the recommendation by the State’s Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy headed by the Ekiti State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Dayo Apata SAN.
The Commissioner for Justice, Dayo Apata SAN who disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital on Thursday, said that 534 applications were received by the panel. Apata said that the gesture was in line with Section 212 of the 1999 Constitution which conferred on the governor the power to grant clemency to inmates after review of their records by the committee on the prerogative of mercy.
According to him, the governor granted two inmates full pardon, five on death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, and two on death sentences commuted to terms of imprisonment.
Others include four inmates serving life imprisonment commuted to 5 years and 10 years terms of imprisonment and eighteen inmates who have less than six months out of their sentences to serve to be released immediately.
