Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, on Wednesday, granted state pardon to a 75-year old prisoner, Pa Kayode Adeyemi and six others serving different jail terms for various offences.
Amosun gave the amnesty to commemorate his 54th birthday, when he visited the Ijebu-Ode, Abeokuta and Oba prisons.
The convict, the NEWSMEN learnt, had spent six months in Ijebu- Ode prison, out of the three-year sentence he bagged.
The governor announced the pardon “after consultation with the Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy, as prescribed by Section 212 (2) of the 1999 Constitution.”
Also, the governor commuted the death sentence passed on Messrs Rashidi Yisau and Saburi Adebayo to life imprisonment and ordered the release of Ibrahim Yinusa and Olanrewaju John, who were among “prisoners serving sentences of three years and above ... and Monday Iheakpo and Semiu Afolabi, who belonged to the group of “long term prisoners who have served more than 10 years with good records.”
He charged those freed to continue to be of good conduct, describing prisons as reformatory centres.
The governor bemoaned the deplorable conditions of the nation’s prisons, while appealing to Nigerians against stigmatising ex-convicts but should assist them in the process of integration.
