Adamawa governor Fintiri pardons farmer sentenced to death for killing herder
Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has granted a full pardon to Sunday Jackson, a farmer who had spent more than a decade on death row after being convicted for killing a herder during an encounter on his farm. The clemency was announced on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, as part of the state’s Christmas and New Year mercy programme. Jackson had been sentenced to death by an Adamawa High Court and the judgement was upheld by higher courts, including the Supreme Court, even though he maintained that he acted in self-defence when the herder attacked him on his farmland.
In the official statement announcing the pardon, Fintiri’s Chief Press Secretary, Humwashi Wonosikou, said the governor acted on the recommendation of the Adamawa State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy and in line with constitutional powers. Jackson’s conduct and behaviour while in custody were cited as factors that justified the exercise of mercy. Alongside Jackson, the governor also pardoned two other inmates and approved the full remission of sentences for five others who had shown significant behavioural improvement during their incarceration.
Jackson’s case, which originated from a 2015 altercation in Kodomti village in Demsa Local Government Area, had drawn widespread national and international attention. Many civil society groups, human rights advocates and religious organisations had campaigned for his release, arguing that the death sentence criminalised the right to self-defence and reflected broader tensions in farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria. Some international figures, including a U.S. congressman, had also publicly supported calls for clemency and urged both federal and state authorities to address the situation.
The pardon sparked reactions across the country, with supporters hailing it as a compassionate act that balanced justice with mercy. Others have continued to discuss broader issues of self-defence rights, rural security and the application of capital punishment in similar cases. The governor’s decision brings to an end a chapter that had become a symbol of the ongoing debate over justice and protection for farmers in Nigeria.
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