Mercy List Revealed: Tinubu Pardons 175 Persons — Macaulay Headlines The List

The Council of State has approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to grant presidential pardons to 175 individuals, spanning various categories, as part of the Prerogative of Mercy initiative.

The decision followed a presentation by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), during the council’s meeting on Thursday at the State House, Abuja.

According to Punch, the approved list includes historic national figures, notably Herbert Macaulay, often hailed as the father of Nigerian nationalism, and Maj.-Gen. Mamman Vatsa (retd.), a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who was executed in 1986 during General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime.

Sources at the meeting confirmed that Macaulay and Vatsa were among the most prominent names on the list, which also featured members of the Ogoni Nine and Ogoni Four.

Macaulay, a key figure in Nigeria’s independence movement, was twice convicted by colonial authorities—first in 1913 for alleged misappropriation of estate funds, and again in 1928 for publishing claims related to the Eleko agitation in the Lagos Daily News, an episode later dubbed the “Gunpowder Plot.”

Vatsa, a respected soldier and poet, served as FCT Minister and was a member of the Supreme Military Council before being executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, over alleged involvement in a coup plot against then military ruler General Babangida, his longtime friend. His trial and execution have long been viewed as controversial, prompting repeated calls for a posthumous pardon.