The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has been criticised for granting pardon to two former governors jailed for corrupt practices.
The PUNCH had reported that the Council of State granted a presidential pardon to 159 convicts on Thursday.
Among them were the former Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye and ex-Governor Jolly Nyame of Taraba State, who were both jailed for allegedly stealing N1.16 billion and N1.6 billion respectively.
Rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), asked the Federal Government to extend Thursday’s presidential pardon granted to some top Nigerians, to people serving terms for petty offences.
This, he said, would reflect fairness and equality for all before the law.
He threatened to mobilise other lawyers against FG if other convicts, especially those jailed for petty offences are not pardoned.
Falana made the call at the 1st anniversary of late Afenifere’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin’s Lecture and Book Presentation.
Falana said, “All petty thieves in our prisons should be released. Under Section 17 of the 1999 Constitution, there shall be equality and equal rights for all citizens.
“Section 42 of the Constitution says there shall be no discrimination on the basis of class and gender, so you cannot take out a few people on the basis that they belong to a category or section of the society.
“I can assure you that if the government did not release others, I am going to call on lawyers whose clients are left in custody to come to court and challenge the discriminatory treatment of their clients.
“Just two weeks ago, a Nigerian was jailed for stealing N1,000 in Abuja; the accused pleaded with the judge that he had no food but the judge jailed him for six months.
“When we are talking of justice and fair play, if you want to pardon some set of people, then you must also extend presidential pardon to petty thieves in the prisons.
“This is because if the big thieves are being asked to go, then they must also extend the facility to other Nigerians.”
On its part, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria accused the president of discrimination, saying, “this discrimination on the basis of political connection will adversely harm the rule of law”.
HURIWA applauded the release of the military officers most of whom were roped into phantom charges of a coup plot by the then maximum dictator General Sani Abacha.
HURIWA, in a statement signed by the national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the best way to begin a thoroughly professional anti-graft war was to ensure federal character in the appointment of directors for the anti-graft body.
HURIWA said it “views the action of early release from jail of these politicians who had barely served 30 per cent of their total jail terms as a confirmation of the well-known notoriety of the Buhari led administration as a harbinger of the most sophisticated forms of corruption but which administration chooses to use the instrumentality of the so-called anti-corruption crusade to whip opposition politicians to the line.
“There has never really been any crusade against corruption in the real sense of it. What EFCC does mostly is to harass students carrying expensive phones and laptops and parade them as YAHOOYAHOO. Whereas the real big-time CORRUPT politicians who are looting Nigeria dry and mindlessly are allowed to have a field day.
“It is now survival of the fittest and the most connected in Nigeria of 2022”.
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