Clemency: “Scrap NDLEA, You Have Made Nonsense Of The Agency” – Dino Melaye Tells President  Tinubu

By Adesina Soyooye

Worried by the high number of convicted drug lords granted Presidential pardon by President Bola Tinubu, Senator Dino Melaye has urged the President to scrap the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

President Tinubu, on Thursday, based on the recommendation of the Committee on the  Prerogative of Mercy, headed by his Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Lateef Fagbemi,              granted clemency to 175 people.

The number of beneficiaries, the largest so far in years, included, according to Melaye, 70 people convicted of drug-related offences.

Condemning the pardon, the former Lawmaker described it as unprecedented in the World.

In a post on his X page on Sunday, Melaye wrote: “Pardon granted 70 drug Lords by President Tinubu is unprecedented in history. Checks have revealed that it has never happened in the history of the world. My advice to the President is to scap the NDLEA. His action has made a beautiful nonsensensical of all the efforts of the agency since inception.”

The President has come under strong criticisms over some of the beneficiaries of the Presidential pardon. They include murderers, fraudsters, and kidnappers.

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in condemning the clemency granted some beneficiaries said the President has trivialised the exercise.

He said: “Ordinarily the power of Presidential pardon is a solemn prerogative, a moral and constitutional instrument designed to temper justice with Mercy and to underscore the humanity of the State.

“When properly exercised, it elevates justice and strengthens public faith in governance. Regrettably, the latest pardon issued by the Tinubu administration has done the very opposite.”

The Presidency has defended the clemency by saying that the beneficiaries exhibited good behaviour, showed remorse, and improved their lives by acquiring more education at the National Open University.