The Council of States headed by President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, granted state pardon to former governor of Bayelsa State Diepreiye Alamieyeisegha.
Also pardoned was another convict and former head of the Bank of the North, Shettima Bulama.
Alamieyeisegha was convicted for embezzling state funds while he was Bayelsa Governor, while Bulama, like Mr. Alamieyeisegha was investigated and later prosecuted for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The Council meeting which was attended by three former heads of states and some state governors also granted state pardon to some of those convicted for coup plotting by the Sani Abacha administration.
President Jonathan, speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Doyin Okupe, also confirmed the report. He said he has no apology for his action.
Mr. Okupe spoke on Channels TV breakfast show, Sunrise.
"That is an action that has been taken by the National Council of States and I have no apology for that." Mr. Jonathan said. "We must begin to respect and honour our institutions. I don't need to defend the action that has been taken."
When reminded that the action had created the impression that the government was not serious about the war against corruption, Mr. Jonathan said, "It is not all decisions parents take that are palatable for their kids. But with time they will realize that their parents are right."
He said pardoning Mr. Alamieyeseigha was in order as the former Bayelsa governor had suffered enough.
"A man was deposed. He was hounded, tried and jail. What is wrong with giving pardon to a remorseful sinner? "How come granting pardon to him has become an aberration? Is it because he is from Bayelsa? Is it from he is from South-South? Is it because he is connected to Mr. President?"
Additional details from Premium Times
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Birds of the same feather flock together. This is an action taken in place of napping other looters of public fund and corrupt leader. I weep for this country. Very soon, with 200 million population in acute poverty, the masses will begin to eat grass and even vultures will become dedicates and extraordinary meat.
Well, we have seen the 'breath of fresh air' Jonathan has brought us haven't we? The sad thing is, and I will guarantee this, that the 2015 elections will be based on tribalism and regionalism. In other words, we will expect Jonathan to get support from the South-South and Southeast solely because Jonathan is an Ijaw man despite his crimes. He may be an authoritarian (or wants to be), a compulsive liar, a globalist who supports forced birth control, etc. but because he is from the South, and I am sure the APC will pick Buhari again, this will be a regional election. Nigeria will never emerge from the culture of immorality, corruption, and decadence if this type of politics is allowed to continue by the general public. The public will essentially be signing itself to more of this type of thing and then they will complain and want to travel to the West. Those of you on allafrica.com who leave ethnocentric messages are contributing to this culture. Your 'brother' is no better and in some ways worse than the Northern elites that you trash on a consistent basis, not that they don't deserve it either. It was quite amusing over the past few days to see people fighting over who owned the oil wells, which politician had 83% of the oil fields. These things were distractions merely so we fight against each other rather than see the bigger cancer. That is the biggest threat to Nigeria as far as I can see.
Someday these so-called servants of the people will find their nasty thieving butts in jail hoping that some other a-holes will pardon them after they are starved and forced to fight over and chop Aboki excreta amongst their peers (stray dogs). Did the a-holes at least make the theiving scum return at least some portion of their windfall that the government (and middle class don't care public) so graciously let them embezzle.