A regional group headquartered in Adamawa State, Gongola People’s Forum, GPF, has canvassed clemency for a citizen of the state, Sunday Jackson, who was recently condemned to death by the Supreme Court.

The group, which addressed a press briefing in Yola on Tuesday, begged Governor Ahmadu Fintiri to grant clemency to the 29-year-old Sunday Jackson.

The GPF National Chairman, Markus Gundiri, who read the text of the briefing, said, “The center point of our press conference today is the conviction and capital sentence imposed on Mr Sunday Jackson by the Nigerian courts following a fatal altercation between him and a nomadic herdsman, which led to the demise of the latter.

“The herdsman had attacked Mr. Jackson with a knife, following which he (Jackson) wrestled the weapon from him and, in self-defense, inflicted injuries on the herdsman, which turned out to be fatal.”

Gundiri, who said his organization chose to step in for Jackson because it regards his conviction as a travesty of justice, urged Fintiri to apply the constitution, with specific reference to Section 212, which gives the chief executive of a state the power to exercise his prerogative of mercy to pardon, grant respite to, or remit in whole or in part any sentence imposed by the courts.

“It is pursuant to this provision that we are calling upon Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri to grant pardon to Mr. Sunday Jackson and save him from the sentence of death by hanging,” Gundiri said.

He said his group was making this intervention out of the conviction that the law is blind to the circumstances of the act for which Jackson was convicted.

“Jackson was going about his business of working to earn a living when the herder accosted him. Jackson was unarmed at the time of the encounter. The herder was the aggressor.

“The herder, without any provocation from Jackson, attacked him with a dangerous weapon and inflicted injuries upon him on the back of his head and leg. In the struggle that ensued, Jackson wrested the knife with which the herder attacked him and inflicted blows on him that proved fatal,” Gundiri recalled.

He added that Jackson had been incarcerated for the past 10 years while his case went through the courts, during which time his family was ruined. His 10-year-old daughter, who was born shortly after his arrest, has never set eyes on him, while his wife has since remarried.

He expressed regret that rather than freeing Jackson because he acted in self-defense, the court ruled that Jackson should have fled upon disarming his attacker rather than using the attacker’s weapon to retaliate.

“That is the law. It is right even when it acts like an ass. The Governor is the only one in this case of Mr. Jackson with the power to override it by exercising his prerogative of mercy,” Gundiri said, reiterating his call on Governor Fintiri to save Jackson.

‘Sunday Jackson must not die’ – Adamawa group canvasses clemency for condemned farmer