The Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, has granted pardon to five prisoners and commuted the death sentences of eight others to life imprisonment.
According to a press statement issued by the state attorney-general and commissioner for Justice, Barrister Bashir Yusuf,? the gesture was in line with the powers conferred on the state governor by the 1999 constitution and in the spirit of the Ramadan.
The prisoners set free include Halilu Ibrahim, from the Katsina prison, Inusa Ibrahim Chamawa, Sule Sada and Moh’d Lawal Idi from Kaduna prison.
Others whose sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment are Musa Dauda, Shehu Idi Nakayi, Nura Sabo, Salmanu Salisu, Shittu Zubrai, Aminu Sada, Abdulkarim Moh’d and Friday Patrick.
The statement explained that all the prisoners affected by the governor’s exercise of prerogative of mercy, except Halilu Ibrahim, had earlier been moved to Kaduna prison for execution.
They were found not to have killed anybody during their operations and also found to have stayed in prison for a long time during which they have changed and become of good behaviour
?