Presidential Amnesty has cleared MacIver, says Correctional Centre boss

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yanagoa

The Nigerian Correctional Centre (NCS) has declared that a former ex-militant leader and Deputy Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Joshua MacIver, has no pending prison sentence obligation.

The Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, in a leaked document titled, to whom it may concern, clarified that MacIver was granted amnesty alongside other Niger Delta militants by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Nababa in a letter addressed to Benjamin Ogbara, the lawyer to MacIver, said the amnesty proclamation ended Maciver’s prison sentence at the Kaduna prisons.

The controller-general also attached the official gazette containing the amnesty proclamation and other relevant documents to prove that MacIver was cleared of all offences.

MacIver, prior to the amnesty proclamation, was convicted and thrown into the Kaduna prisons for mounting pressure on an oil company operating in his community to provide basic amenities to his people.

But Nababa said: “This is to confirm that Mr. Joshua MacIver, who was serving a prison sentence in Kaduna Prisons following his conviction in charge number FHC/KD/119C/2004, on the 26th of February, 2006 was granted Amnesty alongside other Niger Delta militants by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

“This is in pursuant to the Amnesty Proclamation dated the 25th of June, 2009 in exercise of the powers vested on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under section 175 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“He is, therefore, no longer under any legal obligation to continue to serve the prison sentence. Please, find attached the official gazette containing the amnesty proclamation and other relevant documents”.