The Kogi State Governor, Capt. Idris Wada, has granted state pardon to 22 inmates serving different jail terms in different parts of the country under his Prerogative of Mercy.

Governor Wada, who disclosed this during the state broadcast to the people of the state, stated that it was done in accordance with the provision of section 212 subsection 1a, b, c, and d of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

He further stated that the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy was acting in consonance with the provisions of Kogi State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy Law of 1995 by undertaking visits to various prisons in the country where condemned convicts and other categories of convicts of Kogi State extraction are serving their various terms of imprisonment.

While pronouncing the release of some of the condemned inmates, and also pronouncing that some others on death roll be converted to life imprisonment, Governor Idris Wada explained that he had made intensive study and scrutiny of the records of the inmates and digest of recommendations received on behalf of the inmates. He noted that he had come to the inescapable conviction and conclusion that some of the inmates come within the warm embrace of his prerogative.

He advised those who have benefited from the act of mercy to respond to the generosity by total abstinence from crime, asking the communities to absorb them with love so that they could settle down with ease and live a life devoid of suspicion.