Reason Dariye, Nyame, Others Haven’t Been Released Revealed

The reason the former governors of Plateau and Taraba States, Senator Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, have not been released by the Federal Government has emerged.

Last week Thursday, the Council of State granted a presidential pardon to Dariye, Nyame and 157 other convicts during their meeting held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Briefing State House correspondents, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said the council had written a letter to his office regarding the pardon.

Malami said the council approved 159 out of 162 applications presented for the consideration for pardon for convicts in correctional facilities across the country.

Naija News understands that none of the convicts granted the prerogative of mercy by the council of state five days ago has been released from prison.

In a chat with The Punch, the spokesman, Nigeria Correctional Service, Federal Capital Territory Command, Humphrey Chukwuedo, said Malami has not authorised the release of the convicts.

Chukwuedo said the minister must give a directive before they would be released from the custodial centres, adding that the service does not have any reason to delay their release.

“I’m in Kuje (custodial centre) now and up till now; we have not received any paper from the AGF. As soon as we get the necessary papers, we will release them.

“We don’t have any reasons to hold them once we get the directive from the AGF. We have not received the papers. As of now, they are still in our custody,” he said.

Recall that Dariye, who was Plateau governor from 1999 to 2007, was jailed for laundering public funds to the tune of N1.162bn and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

His prison term was later reduced to 10 years by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, while his conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court.

Nyame, who was governor of Taraba State from 1999 to 2007, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for stealing N1.6bn from the state’s treasury, a judgment which was also upheld by the Supreme Court.