Kaduna Seeks Amendment To Prerogative Of Mercy Law

The Kaduna State House of Assembly, has adopted a report seeking to amend the law on the prerogative of mercy to make it more inclusive and effective.

The Tides’s source  reports that the Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, Mr Irmiya Kantiok, presented the report at plenary session on Thursday.

The Committee was mandated by the House to study and review the Kaduna State Cap No: 4 of 1991, otherwise known as the Prerogative of Mercy Advisory Committee Law of 1991.

Presenting the report, Kantiok told the House that the law also called for a review to ensure quick dispensation of justice in the state.

He added that the review was necessitated by an executive bill submitted to the House by Governor Patrick Yakowa.

According to him, a striking recommendation of the bill is the appointment of two representatives from each of the three senatorial zones of the state into the committee.

However, the Minority Leader, Dr Shehu Danfulani, noted that such an inclusion without specifying the caliber of the appointees could politicise the committee and jeopardise the intended justice delivery service.

Other members of the House, however, allayed Danfulani’s fear, arguing that the nomination and subsequent appointment into the committee would be approved by the legislature, after a thorough screening exercise.

The Speaker of the House, Alhaji Usman Gangaran, deferred further debate on the bill to April 18, and adjourned the plenary to  tomorrow.