Why we can’t release Dariye, Nyame, others despite pardon – NCS

Two months after they were granted state pardon, 159 convicts, including a former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye, and a former Taraba State Governor, Jolly Nyame, have yet to be released, Sunday PUNCH has learnt.

The Council of State led by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had on April 14 approved the pardon of the convicts, a decision which generated outcries.

Nyame is serving a 12-year jail sentence for diverting N1.64 billion during his tenure as governor of Taraba, while  Dariye is serving 10 years’ imprisonment for N1.126 billion fraud.

But while justifying the clemency, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the president, Garba Shehu, had said it would have been insensitive for the President not to pardon the duo, saying that they had life-threatening illnesses.

However, checks by our correspondent on Friday revealed that the two and others granted the state pardon were still in custody.

When contacted about why the two former governors were still in their custody, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service, Abubakar Umar, explained that the NCS was not responsible for the delay.

According to him, the duo could not be released by correctional service until a correspondence from the Ministry of Justice stating so was received. Punch