Bob Emeka 
On Thursday, President Bola Tinubu approved the exercise of the presidential prerogative of mercy for 175 persons across various categories.
New Telegraph reports that Nigeria’s foremost nationalist, Herbert Macaulay, and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Maj.-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd) were part of those who benefited from the prerogative.
The Council of State endorsed the approval following a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), during the council meeting held at the State House, Abuja.
However, the full names of the beneficiaries are yet to be released to the press, but New Telegraph gathered that members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four also made the beneficiary lists.
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“Herbert Macaulay and Vatsa are among the two prominent beneficiaries on that list,” a source who attended the meeting told our correspondent.
Macaulay, often called the “father of Nigerian nationalism,” was twice convicted by the colonial authorities in Lagos.
In 1913, while in private practice as a surveyor, he was tried for misappropriating funds from an estate he administered and sentenced to prison; historians have long debated the fairness of that prosecution.
Vatsa, a poet, former FCT minister and member of the Supreme Military Council, was executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, after a secret military tribunal convicted him of treason over an alleged coup against then military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, his childhood friend.
The case has remained controversial for decades, with periodic calls for a posthumous pardon.
Out of the 175 beneficiaries, 82 inmates were granted a full presidential pardon, 65 had their sentences reduced, while seven death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
