TAIWO ADISA (Nigerian Tribune) examines the controversy dogging the March 12 pardon announced by the presidency.Did General Oladipo Diya, General Abdukareem Adisa receive a second presidential pardon through the decision of the Council of State at its meeting of March 12, 2013? That is the question that has been on the lips of many political commentators in the past week. With the confirmation that Generals Diya and Adisa were among the eight top national figures granted pardon by President Jonathan, controversy has greeted what some public commentators have called a “second pardon.”
Those granted clemency by the Abubakar regime included General Diya, Adisa; former Minister of Communications, Major-General Tajudeen Olanrewaju and Major A. A. Fadipe. They were ordered to walk out from the different prisons, but not without forfeiting their assets to the Federal Government. Abubakar had also granted a posthumous pardon to General Musa Yar’Adua when he pardoned Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and released him from prison in 1998, having been jailed by the Abacha regime for the 1995 phantom coup d’etat.
While it is true that Abubakar, indeed, granted clemency to Diya and Adisa, whose names surfaced in the list of 2013, investigations revealed that the military version of clemency is different from the constitutional pardon, which is all encompassing. It was confirmed that whereas the clemency granted by Abubakar enabled Diya and Adisa to walk out of prisons, they never regained their entitlements as military officers. They also continued to carry the tag of ex-convicts despite their release.
Notwithstanding claims in some quarters that Section 161 of the 1979 Constitution, which was amended by the Constitution (Suspension and Modification) Decree of 1993 under which General Abubakar exercised his powers of clemency for Diya and others was the same as Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and that Diya and Adisa have been granted pardon, the duo were not so recognized.
Those who are opposed to the March 12 pardon have, however, continued to indicate that the former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who President Goodluck Jonathan had referred to as his political benefactor, was the main target of the presidential mercy. The development was painted as Jonathan’s payback for Alamieyeseigha.
In their attempts to get the tag of ex-convict removed from Diya, his kinsmen from Odogbolu, Ogun State and other interest groups were on record to have prodded former President Obasanjo during his tenure to pardon the former number two man to no avail. Their request was based on the fact that Obasanjo, being a product of presidential pardon himself, should be disposed to granting same to Diya and others.
Diya’s kinsmen and associates also made representations to the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua for pardon. At a stage, reports indicated that Diya’s hometown got hints that the former Chief of General Staff was about being pardoned. The town was said to have warned up for the formal announcement of the news which never came before the death of Yar’Adua.
Reports had it then that the likes of Diya, Olanrewaju and Colonel Lawan Gwadabe were slated for pardon. On the strength of that speculation, media reports quoted the town’s monarch as saying that the Odogbolu people were planning a grand reception for their son once the pardon was announced. Such reports indicate that the alleged second pardon for Diya and Adisa does not exist.
The belief in government circles is that those who published the March 4, 1999 gazette signed by General Abubakar were out to paint the decision of the administration of Jonathan as untidy and a desperate move to free Alamieyeseigha.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, who gave the official confirmation of the presidential pardon last week, defended the decision saying that Alamieyeseigha had been punished for the offences he committed against the state.
He told journalists on March 13: “I want to state categorically here, that state or presidential pardon is not intended for nobility or saints. In general, a state pardon is for those who have committed crimes and breached the laws of the land and may or may not have been tried or convicted regardless of their social status.
“He lost his position, forfeited the property illegally acquired and has demonstrated enough soberness after he served his sentence. It is out of place to suggest that the pardon is tantamount to abandoning the fight against corruption in Nigeria. This is too far from the truth.
“People have stated that President Jonathan said publicly that Alamieyeseigha was his political benefactor. This is a display of extreme humility and honesty on the part of Mr. President, in this day that virtually all political benefactors usually turn into enemy number one and are therefore hounded to the ground by the incumbents.
“It was God and providence that lifted President Jonathan over and above his former political boss. But in truth, Alamieyeseigha since he left prison has been working strenuously and silently to assist the president stabilize the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta region.
“Alamieyeseigha is a foremost leader of the Ijaw Nation, and his political and stabilizing influence in that region has impacted positively on the overall economy of the nation, bringing crude oil exports from the abysmally low level of 700,000 bpd to over 2.4 million bpd.
“Therefore, it is obvious that Alamieyeseigha has been a major player since his release from prison in ensuring that the blood that runs through the Nigerian economic artery is not cut off.”
Besides the defence put up by Okupe, an official document sighted during the week indicated that Alamieyeseigha’s pardon was part of the plea bargain he entered into with the government when he was being tried over money laundering and embezzlement charges.
The document indicated that Alamieyeseigha entered into a plea bargain with the administration of the late President Yar’Adua, which included a pardon option.
“Part of the plea bargain agreement reached with the late President Yar’Adua included a pardon after conviction and jail term; this was not actualised due to Yar’Adua’s death. This was the precedence in 2000, where a pardon was granted by then President Obasanjo, in the case of perjury and forgery against the convicted former Speaker of the House, Salisu Buhari, immediately upon his guilty plea and subsequent conviction,” the document read.
In situating the conditions prevalent ahead of the pardon granted the former Bayelsa governor, the administration’s strategists had also posited that the incarceration of Alamieyesiegha and ex-militant, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, had signalled “the transformation of the Niger Delta conflict from one of peaceful agitation and on to pipeline vandalism and full blown armed conflict, this was because of the widely held perception in that area of both individuals as selfless advocates of the common aspirations, which subsists to this day.”
The report further affirmed that the former governor had been helpful in engaging the grassroots in the Niger Delta and that his efforts helped to shore up oil production.
The report further stated: “Following his release from prison, Alamieyesiegha has been adjudged to have been of good behaviour and of evident contrition, avoiding personal and political controversy, and actively engaging as voluntary ombudsman and intermediary regarding wide issues of youth restiveness, pipeline vandalism and popular discontent across the entire Niger Delta.
“This has helped to sustain a steady increase in crude production output, and reduce to the barest, armed militant activity in the Delta. Despite his travails he continues to command great grassroots popularity in the Niger Delta.”
Meanwhile, critics of the pardon of the former Bayelsa governor have continued to describe it as immoral and unfortunate.
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