President John Mahama has granted amnesty to 998 prisoners across Ghana in line with Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution.

The decision, announced in a statement by presidential spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu, followed advice from the Prisons Service Council and consultations with the Council of State.

Beneficiaries include 787 first-time offenders, 87 death-row inmates whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, and 51 life sentences reduced to 20 years. Others pardoned are 33 seriously ill inmates, 36 aged over 70, two nursing mothers, and two granted release through special petitions.