Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has pardoned a man who has been on death row for the past 22 years. Ibrahim Aliyu, 57, has spent a total of 25 years in prison. He spent three years awaiting trial for armed robbery and a further 22 years, after conviction, awaiting the hangman at the Maximum Security Prison, Lagos. An official statement Olusegun Adeniyi, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity) said President Yar’Adua had similarly written to Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, asking him to kindly pardon Nze Ikemenawa Enweremadu who is presently on death row in Port Harcourt Prison having been convicted of murder, a state offence. Nze Enweremadu is 90 years old. He has spent nine years awaiting trial and two y ears on death row. The statement said President Yar’Adua had also directed the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation to undertake a review of the records of inmates of Nigerian prisons and bring other deserving cases to his attention.
