The AGF said the President regardless “of the volume of the money involved” only exercised his judicious powers.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Friday defended the state pardon grant to Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, former governors of Plateau and Taraba states respectively.
Malami a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), explained that it was within the constitutional powers of the president to grant state pardon to convicts, thereby justifying President Muhammadu Buhari's pardon of the duo.
The AGF said the President regardless “of the volume of the money involved” only exercised his judicious powers.
SaharaReporters had reported that both Dariye and Nyame were released from the Correctional facility in Kuje Council Area of the federal capital territory (FCT), on August 8, 2022.
Nyame was serving a 12-year jail sentence for diverting N1.64bn during his tenure as governor of Taraba, while Dariye was serving 10 years’ imprisonment for N1.126bn fraud.
But on April 14, 2022, the duo were among 159 convicts granted pardon during a Council of State which was chaired by President Buhari.
The presidency then cited ill-health as a ground on which the two former governors were pardoned.
Speaking at the 18th edition of the administration’s scorecard series on Thursday, Malami said that President Buhari only considered the eligibility of those pardoned and not the amount of money they embezzled.
“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.”