The Council of State, yesterday, approved April 2023 for the conduct of a fresh national census.
The council, which directed that the exercise takes place immediately after the general elections in February, also approved pardon for 159 inmates, leaving out the former Bank PHB Managing Director, Francis Atuche, who was sentenced to 120 years imprisonment for stealing over N25 billion.
This is as even as the National Population Commission, NPC, the body saddled with the responsibility of conducting the census, said it would conduct pilot census in June, after political parties’ primary elections.
The last census was held in August 2006.
The council of state comprises former presidents/heads of state, serving and former Chief Justices of Nigeria, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, state governors, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the FCT minister.
The meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, had Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalam Abubakar as well as former President Goodluck Jonathan present.
While former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida attended virtually, Senate president, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, were absent due to engagements in the National Assembly.
Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, said the council approved 159 of 162 applications presented for consideration for prerogative of mercy for convicts and inmates in correctional centres.
He explained that one of the three persons rejected was sentenced to 120 years over stealing and had only served five months in prison.
