Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has berated President Bola Tinubu’s administration for the assessment of the clemency record, following public condemnation, saying the federal government thinks after it acts.
The Tinubu’s authorities on Wednesday introduced the reviewed clemency record, eradicating people convicted of great crimes comparable to kidnapping, drug-related offences, human trafficking, fraud and illegal possession or dealing in firearms.
Reacting in to the event, the previous Vice President, in a press release by his Senior Particular Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, stated Nigerians have witnessed a authorities that doesn’t lead however reacts.
“President Bola Tinubu has “cancelled” his personal pardon for drug traffickers, kidnappers, and different hardened criminals — however solely after Nigerians shouted loud sufficient to wake him from his ethical slumber.
“Let’s be clear: this U-turn is just not an act of knowledge, it’s an act of disgrace.
“If the general public had stored quiet, would convicted drug lords and kidnappers be strolling free as we speak beneath the President’s blessing? Who thought it was a superb thought to reward crime and betray justice? Who signed off on such nationwide embarrassment?
“These are the questions each Nigerian deserves solutions to: Who compiled the record of beneficiaries?
What standards justified liberating kidnappers and drug offenders? The place was the Legal professional-Common when this absurdity was cooked up? And why does this authorities solely “uncover its conscience” after Nigerians categorical outrage?”he stated.
In response to the previous vp, this sample has turn into too acquainted — announce the unthinkable, watch the nation erupt, then hurriedly reverse course as if governance is a recreation of “trial and error.”
“A presidential pardon is just not a social experiment. It’s a sacred constitutional energy meant to mirror justice, mercy, and nationwide curiosity — to not reward impunity or take a look at public persistence.
“How can a authorities that pardons criminals lecture residents about morality, order, or self-discipline? How can a Commander-in-Chief who almost freed kidnappers declare to be preventing insecurity? This whole episode exposes one bitter reality: Nigeria is being ruled with out foresight, with out empathy, and with out disgrace.”
“If the President actually means effectively, let him publish the record of all those that have been meant to learn from this scandal. Let Nigerians see the names, the crimes, and the palms that signed off on this reckless indulgence. Till then, this cancellation is nothing however harm management — too little, too late,” the assertion added.
