*Council okays National Census first to hold March, April, 2023
*President to make his first conferment of national honours on 434 Nigerians
By OUR REPORTER, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has made yet another landmark achievement with the Council of State meeting he presided over in Abuja, on Thursday April 14, 2022, granting state pardon to 159 beneficiaries including a former General officer Commanding, GOC, Third Mechanised Division Nigerian Army, Jos, and Minister of Communications during the military regime of General Sani Abacha, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (Rtd).
General Olanrewaju military aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oluwole Oyebanji Akiyode convicted for Diya’s coup of 1997 and all the junior officers jailed over the 1990 abortive Gideon Orkar coup also made the list, even as two former Governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Jolly Nyame (Taraba) states were also pardoned.
Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, convicted for corruption, were pardoned based on the consideration of their age and health although their jail terms were still many years to complete.
The DEFENDER reports that General Tajudeen Olanrewaju was the fine officer that freed Nigerians from monopoly of NITEL through his deregulation of the telecommunications sector as Abacha’s Minister.
He and his aide, Lt. Col. Akiyode, who died in prison over the Diya coup of 1997, are among the 159 persons pardoned by the Council at a meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the in State House, Abuja on Thursday April 14, 2022.
This presidential gesture was coming four years after Buhari’s widely applauded magnanimity recognising June 12 date as Democracy Day in Nigeria, Alhaji Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola as winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and conferring on him, posthumously, the nation’s highest award honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic.
He honoured two others with GCON namely MKO Abiola’s running mate, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, and late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, also posthumously.
Although the full list of beneficiaries of the state pardon could not be obtained as at press time, a source close to both Presidency and Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, told The DEFENDER that “there was a press conference immediately after the meeting where the Attorney General of the Federation confirmed the pardon.”
Aside the state pardon granted, the Council of State also consented to a resolution that conduct of national census should hold between March and April 2023, that will be 17 years after the last census of 2006.
The Council deliberated on security situations in parts of the country and concluded that President Buhari will hold a security meeting with his security chiefs, based on the Council’s presentations.
The Council also resolved to confer national honours on 434 Nigerians.
It will be the first honours granted by President Buhari since he assumed office in 2015.
The DEFENDER had reported earlier on Thursday that three former leaders namely former Heads of State General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd), General Abdulsalaam Abubakar (Rtd) and former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan were physically in attendance at the Thursday’s Council of State meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari while others participated virtually from their respective locations.
Also at the meeting were the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd) and the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
Other members of the council are state Governors among who were also in attendance, namely Senator Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Dr. Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Senator Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Hon. Mohammed Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) and Malam Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) among others.
