The Attorney-General of the federation, Abubakar Malami has said that President Muhammadu Buhari reserves the right to pardon former Plateau governor, Joshua Dariye and former governor of Taraba state, Jolly Nyame.
It would be recalled that Dariye and Nyame were released from the correctional facility in Kuje council area, federal capital territory (FCT), on August 8, 2022.
The duo who were jailed for fraud got pardoned on the grounds of age and ill health. They were among the 159 inmates pardoned by President Buhari recently.
Speaking at the 18th edition of the administration’s scorecard series on Thursday, Malami argued that it was within the constitutional powers of the president to grant state pardon to convicts
He said Buhari only considered the eligibility of those pardoned and not the amount of money embezzled.
According to him, “There are no different set of laws but there could be variation in terms of volume of the certain matters involved and ingredients of the exercise of the situation,” he said.
“So, in essence, there has been in place a legislation that tolerated and accommodated pardon. It is the discretion of the president to exercise pardon.
“The question is whether the president has exercised the powers vested in him constitutionally or statutorily, and my answer is regardless of the volume of the money involved, the major consideration is the judicious exercise of the power by the president.
“And my answer is Mr president has been exercising the powers statutorily vested in him as relates to pardon without having necessary regard to the volume involved.”
