President Bola Tinubu has ordered a review of the presidential pardon granted to at least 175 persons at the National Council of State meeting on October 9, 2025, following widespread outrage over the inclusion of individuals convicted of serious offences.
A statement issued Wednesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said, “Consequently, certain persons convicted of serious crimes such as kidnapping, drug-related offences, human trafficking, fraud, unlawful possession of firearms/arms dealing, etc., were deleted from the list.”
Onanuga added, “Others who had been hitherto pardoned in the old list had their sentences commuted.”
After backlash for granting a presidential pardon to Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death in 2020 for the killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, President Bola Tinubu has revoked the pardon and reversed her sentence to 12 years.
This was revealed in an official gazette released by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday.
According to the gazette, Sanda, who had already spent six years and eight months at the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre, got the new approved term on compassionate grounds.
