The meeting which began at 04:25 pm is the President’s first meeting with the former governors who were elected at the dawn of the fourth republic.

Wednesday’s meeting is at the instance of Tinubu, who was also elected governor of Lagos State at the time.

Present are Olusegun Osoba of Ogun, Bisi Akande of Osun, Lucky Igbinedion of Edo, Saminu Turaki of Jigawa, James Ibori of Delta, Donald Duke of Cross Rivers, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti, Orji Kalu of Abia, Obong Attah of Akwa Ibom and Sam Egwu of Ebonyi State.

Also present are Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), Ibrahim Turaki (Jigawa), Adamu Muazu (Bauchi), Ahmad Yerima (Zamfara), Jolly Nyame (Taraba), Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto) and Joshua Dariye (Plateau).

The Council of State, led by the President Buhari had on April 14 approved the pardon of the 159 convicts.

Nyame was serving a 12-year jail sentence for diverting N1.64bn during his tenure as governor of Taraba, while  Dariye was serving 10 years’ imprisonment for N1.126bn fraud.

Justifying the pardon, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, had said the two former governors had life-threatening illnesses.

116 days after the pardon was announced, five inmates:

Dariye and Nyame were released from Kuje Custodial Centre and three yet-to-be identified convicts were also released from the Suleja Custodial Centre on Monday.

the Nigerian Correctional Service’s spokesperson in the Federal Capital Territory, Chukwuedo Humphrey, confirmed their release.

Humphrey said, “The release is sequel to the receipt of the letter of clemency from the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy Committee by the Controller General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa.

“The Controller of Corrections, FCT Command, Ahmed Ahmed, acting on the directives of the Controller General, also released three other inmates who were granted pardon from the Suleja Custodial Centre.”

When asked why others were yet to be released, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Umar Abubakar, said they would be freed as soon as all conditions are perfected.

He said, “Now, it is only these ones released from Kuje Custodial Centre that their process of release has been perfected. Once someone has been brought in, there is a process that must be followed to release them. However, we will keep releasing them as they meet the conditions.”