Nigeria, Dec. 24 -- Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri on Tuesday granted a full pardon to Sunday Jackson, a farmer who was sentenced to death in 2019 for killing a herder during a confrontation on his farmland.

The pardon was announced in a statement by the governor's Chief Press Secretary, Humwashi Wonosikou, as part of the state's Christmas and New Year clemency programme.

Mr Jackson was convicted following a violent encounter on his farm, during which he killed a herder who allegedly attacked him.

Civil society organisations, lawyers and community leaders had argued that the incident amounted to self-defence.

Despite those arguments, the trial court sentenced Mr Jackson to death in 2019 in a ruling that many saw as controversia...