Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, the outgoing governor of Niger state, has pardoned 24 criminals, including those who had previously received death sentences.
Similar to this, he paid N20 million in fines for 80 other prisoners so they may enjoy freedom.
A few of them were on death row. This was declared on Friday by Nasara Danmallam, the state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice, when she turned over responsibility for the Ministry of Justice’s operations to the Permanent Secretary.
“As a parting gift, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello has granted pardon to 24 inmates across the state under his powers of prerogative of mercy. Some of them have been on death roll whose sentences have been commuted to few years of prison term “.
According to him, six of the beneficiaries are civil servants convicted to have been involved in fraud and other related offences and were dismissed in connection with their cases.
“Other who are beneficiaries of the pardon according to the Attorney General are six dismissed civil servants who are now reinstated. Those of them who have attained retirement age will however be retired with full benefits,” he explained.
Danmallam disclosed that 115 bills and legal instruments were promulgated into law during the eight year administration of the outgoing Governor.
According to him, “the Ministry also initiated Gender Issues Department mandated to handle spouse disagreements using alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
Director of the Department, Maro Mohammed Mann disclosed that the office received 1,500 cases from 2020 and resolved 1,400 of them and were reunited with their families.