TheCable

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for granting pardon to Joshua Dariye, former governor of Plateau state, and Jolly Nyame, former governor of Taraba state.

Nyame is serving a 12-year jail sentence for diverting N1.64 billion during his tenure as governor of Taraba, while Dariye is serving 10 years’ imprisonment for N1.126 billion fraud.

The former governors were among 159 inmates pardoned at a council of state meeting on Thursday.

They were granted pardons on the grounds of age and ill-health.

In a statement on Saturday, Auwal Rafsanjani, CISLAC executive director, said the “ill-thought political pardon” is a big setback for the country’s fight against corruption.

He said the fact that the full list of the 159 pardoned inmates has not been released shows a lack of transparency in the process.

“Coupled with corruption allegations in the judicial system, this pardon shows how bad Nigeria’s anti-corruption effort is and it comes barely a week after the United States government released its ‘2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Nigeria’ where it accused Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of focusing on low-and mid-level government officials,” the statement read.

“The pardon further confirms the poor rating of Nigeria on different global indexes and reports like the Corruption Perception Index and the Afro barometer corruption survey which have reported an increase in corruption in Nigeria.

“Without doubt, the official pardon basically targeted at political settlement is indeed a major setback to our nation’s progress and achievements in the fight against corruption, while validating public perception of the administration’s reported disproportionate and lop-sided fight against corruption in the country.

“This move goes further to demoralize our anti-corruption agencies who are already facing challenges prosecuting high profile cases of corruption. Some of these cases took over ten years to conclude and with lots of resources committed.

“This pardon also fails the test of fairness and equity when we consider the poor citizens who have been convicted and are in prison for committing lesser crimes.

“Hence, we call for an extension of such pardon to common Nigerians awaiting trial, forgotten, or abandoned in jails for trivial offences across the country.

“It is important to state that when convicted individuals who looted billions of naira are released, there is no way that the international community will take Nigeria’s anti-corruption efforts seriously, especially when attempts are being made to recover stolen assets outside the country.

“We sincerely hope the processes and objectives of such Presidential pardon will be re-examined and made transparent to avoid setting a bad precedent, especially as the nation moves towards political transition in the 2023 general elections.”