{"id":17642,"date":"2019-11-05T18:26:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T18:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/nigeria\/?p=17642"},"modified":"2019-11-05T18:26:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T18:26:53","slug":"ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue","title":{"rendered":"Ortom pardons 500 prisoners in Benue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gov Samuel Ortom of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benue_State\">Benue State<\/a> has granted pardon to more than 500 prisoners in the last four years, according to Commissioner for Justice, Michael Gusa.<\/p>\n<p>Gusa told newsmen on Tuesday in Makurdi that those pardoned were natives of the state.<\/p>\n<p>He spoke shortly after the inauguration of the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmong those let off the hook were 250 prisoners convicted and given an option of fine, while others were those sentenced to life imprisonment or death sentence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor those in the first category, the governor graciously provided funds for their fines and they were released.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose in the second category \u2013 people convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment \u2013 were given a reprieve with their sentences converted to 10 years while others got 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe third category was made up of people who were sentenced to death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe made recommendations and he converted the death sentences to life imprisonment. All together, we had about 500 persons that were affected,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Ortom, while inaugurating the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, regretted the high rate of prisons congestion in the country.<\/p>\n<p>He disclosed that his administration was building a cell block for the Makurdi Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n<p>Ortom cautioned youths against resorting to crime for survival, stressing that the road to success was always filled with rough parts.<\/p>\n<p>He urged the council to identify convicts who qualify for pardon and recommend same for his action, adding that he relied on Section 212 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria to constitute it.<\/p>\n<p>The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gusa is the Chairman of the council that has Bishop Nathan Nyom, Rev. Fr. Remigius Ihula, Malam Umar Shuaibu and Dr Gajir Tsoho as members.<\/p>\n<p>Others included Comptroller of Prisons in Benue, and Director, Public Prosecutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov Samuel Ortom of Benue State has granted pardon to more than 500 prisoners in the last four years, according to Commissioner for Justice, Michael Gusa. Gusa told newsmen on Tuesday in Makurdi that those pardoned were natives of the state. He spoke shortly after the inauguration of the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[925,379,1125],"class_list":["post-17642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-benue-state","tag-ortom","tag-state-advisory-council"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ortom pardons 500 prisoners in Benue - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gov Samuel Ortom of Benue State has granted pardon to more than 500 prisoners in the last four years, according to Commissioner for Justice, Michael Gusa.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ortom pardons 500 prisoners in Benue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gov Samuel Ortom of Benue State has granted pardon to more than 500 prisoners in the last four years, according to Commissioner for Justice, Michael Gusa.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-05T18:26:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Ortom1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"586\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"alico\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"alico\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/50afd2ef4f0e900bd0a176404a8484a7\"},\"headline\":\"Ortom pardons 500 prisoners in Benue\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-05T18:26:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue\"},\"wordCount\":299,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/upload\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Ortom1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Benue State\",\"Ortom\",\"State Advisory Council\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/ortom-pardons-500-prisoners-in-benue\",\"name\":\"Ortom pardons 500 prisoners in Benue - 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