Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje has pardoned 4,000 inmates in the last eight years, Chief Press Secretary to the deputy governor, Malam Hassan Fagge, said on Friday in Kano.
Fagge, in a statement, quoted Ganduje as stating this while pardoning 43 inmates at the Goron Dutse custodial facility to mark this year’s Eid-el-Fitr celebration.
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Represented by his deputy, Alhaji Nasiru Gawuna, Ganduje said that his government had, within the eight years, spent N4.9 million to settle fines and compensations for the inmates.
While stressing that freedom was everything to human life, he called on the pardoned inmates to exhibit good character on return to the society.
Mr Suleiman Inuwa, the Controller of the correctional service in the State, in a remark, explained that the gesture would assist in decongesting the facilities.
He added that it would also ensure peaceful atmosphere in the yard.
Inuwa urged the beneficiaries to be good ambassadors of the Nigerian Correctional Service by being law abiding.
Mallam Abdullahi Garba, Chairman of the Council on Prerogative of Mercy, thanked the governor for exercising the power conferred on him by the constitution to free the inmates.
He also thanked the correctional service management and the council for recommending the inmates for that gesture.
(NAN)