By Gideon Njoku
The families of former Governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame of Plateau and Taraba States couldn’t have had a better Easter present than the one given to them on Thursday, April 14, 2022.
Their patriarchs will walk out of prisons free. They are to spend Easter with them. And nobody can quite refer to them, legally, as ex-convicts. Their sins have been forgiven.
In one of the surprises of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Government, the Council of State, which the President presides over, pardoned both former Governors who have been serving long prison sentences for corruption which involved stealing and misappropriation of public funds when they were in office as Governors.
A record number of 159 persons were granted pardon by the Council of State. The two former Governors were the most prominent. Another prominent name was Major General Tajudeen Olarewaju. He was a former Minister of Communications during the General Sani Abacha regime. He was implicated in the famed General Oladipo Diya coup, dismissed as fanthom by not a few people, to topple Abacha. Diya was the Chief of General Staff to Abacha when he was implicated in the coup.
Olarenwaju was jailed for life. And even though he and others, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Diya were released from jail by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime, he was not granted pardon, something he kept fighting for until he died a couple of years ago.
Pardoned too are an Army Lieutenant Colonel, Akiyode. He who was an aide to Genersl Diya;m and all the junior officers jailed over the 1990 abortive Gideon Orkar coup.
Dariye and Nyame were pardoned on both health and age grounds.
Aged 66 years, Nyame was the Governor of Taraba State from 1999 to 2007.
He was serving a 12-year jail term at the Kuje prison for misappropriation of funds while he was in office. He fought the battle to free himself upto the Supreme Court, but finally lost hl in February 2020.
Dariye, 64, was the Governor of Plateau between 1999 and 2007. He was jailed for stealing the sum of N2 billion from public funds during his tenure as Plateau Governor.
He was elected Senator representing Plateau Central in the Senate in 2015 and was sentenced in June 2018.
In 2021, a five man panel of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Mary Peter-Odili, found him not guilty in respect of the criminal misappropriation in a unanimous decision, and thus, reduced his jail term from by two years.
Dariye was first sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by the Honourable Justice Adebukola Banjoko of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on June 12, 2018.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja on November 16, 2018, reduced the jail term from 14 years to 10 years.
Thursday’s Council of State was attended by former President’s and Military Heads of State, except former President Olusegun Obasanjo who is in the United States on medical vacation and General Ibrahim Babangida.
The Council of State is an organ of the Nigerian Government as stipulated by Third Schedule Part 1B of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Its membership includes the President, who is Chairman; the Vice-President, who is Deputy Chairman; all former Presidents of the Federation and all former Heads of the Government of the Federation; all former Chief Justices of Nigeria; the President of the Senate; the Speaker of the House of Representatives; all the Governors of the states of the Federation; and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The Council has power to:
(a) advise the President in the exercise of his powers with respect to the:-
(i) national population census and compilation, publication and keeping of records and other information concerning the same;
(ii) prerogative of mercy;
(iii) award of national honours;
(v) the National Judicial Council (including the appointment of the members, other than ex-officio members of that Council); and
(vi) the National Population Commission (including the appointment of members of that Commission); and
(b) advise the President whenever requested to do so on the maintenance of public order within the Federation or any part thereof and on such other matters as the President may direct.
During the President Goodluck Jonathan Government, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, the now late DSP Alamieseigha was also granted State pardon after serving a jail term.
The three Governors were prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
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