Governor Fintiri Pardons Farmer Sentenced to Death for Self-Defence
The administrative landscape of Adamawa State has witnessed a historic act of executive clemency that has resonated far beyond the borders of the North East. In a decisive move to commemorate the 2025 festive season, Governor Fintiri Pardons Farmer Sunday Jackson, a man whose decade-long legal battle became a national flashpoint for debates on the right to self-defence. The Governor’s intervention, announced on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, effectively halts the execution of a man who many believed was a victim of a rigid and detached judicial process.
The case of Sunday Jackson dates back to a violent encounter in 2015 while he was working on his farm in the Kodomti area of Numan Local Government. According to the documented facts of the case, Jackson was accosted by an itinerant herder who drove cattle onto his cultivated land. When Jackson attempted to protect his livelihood, the confrontation turned physical, with the assailant wielding a knife. Jackson, who sustained multiple stab wounds during the struggle, eventually managed to disarm his attacker and used the same weapon to deliver a fatal blow to the herder’s throat. Despite his consistent plea of self-preservation, a High Court in 2021 sentenced him to death, a verdict that was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal and eventually the Supreme Court in March 2025.
The apex court’s decision to maintain the death sentence sparked widespread domestic and international condemnation. The judiciary’s reasoning, that Jackson “exceeded the bounds of necessity” by stabbing the attacker multiple times after disarming him, was viewed by critics as a failure to account for the visceral fear and adrenaline inherent in a life-or-death struggle. Human rights advocates and international figures, including United States Congressman Riley Moore, had spent months lobbying the Federal Government and the Adamawa State administration for a review, arguing that a farmer defending his life should not be treated as a cold-blooded murderer.
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Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s decision to grant the pardon was based on the recommendation of the Adamawa State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, which cited Jackson’s exemplary conduct during his eleven years in custody. The move has been hailed by the Northern Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) as a “courageous and compassionate” act that restores faith in the intersection of law and humanity. Jackson was released alongside two other inmates, Joseph Eugene and Maxwell Ibrahim, while five others saw their sentences fully remitted. For Sunday Jackson, who entered prison in his twenties and now leaves in his thirties, the pardon represents a hard-won victory against a system that had almost entirely closed its doors on him. For more information, I recommend Songbuxnews.
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