The Presidential Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy (PACPM) has reconvened, on account of 320 applications requesting for the grant of Presidential Pardon and Clemency before it.
The Federal Government disclosed this at the meeting of the Presidential committee held at the Ministry of Justice in Abuja.
In a keynote address, the Attorney General of the Federation, Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said that the committee Secretariat is been saddle with myriad of requests on behalf of some convicts in custodial centers across the country.
The Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume said that the reconvening of the committee would go a long way in bringing about a drastic reduction in the population of inmates in the nation’s Correctional Centres.
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Other members of the committee also expressed worry about the situation adding that the menace has become a stain on the nation’s Criminal Justice System.
The Federal Government had in 2018 constituted the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy on June 19, 2018, with the AGF Malami as the chairman.
However the Council of State at its meeting on 27th of August, 2020, also considered and ratified the grant of the Presidential Pardon. At the first phase of the exercise two inmates got Presidential Pardon, thirty-nine got clemency while four ex-convicts were granted Presidential Pardon.
(Editor-Abaje Usekwe)
