Why I pardoned ex-Governor Alamieyeseigha — Jonathan

One of the albatrosses of the Goodluck Jonathan administration
was the granting of state pardon to the convicted late governor of
Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

Mr Jonathan was the deputy to Mr Alamieyeseigha when he was
governor of Bayelsa. Mr Alamieyeseigha who died in 2015 was
convicted for money laundering related charges.

On March 12, 2013, Mr. Jonathan pardoned Mr Alamieyeseigha. The
state pardon elicited a barrage of criticism against Mr.
Jonathan.

But in his new book, “My Transition Hours”, Mr Jonathan
explained that the decision to pardon Mr Alamieyeseigha was reached
by his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, who could not announce it
before he died.

He explained that in pardoning Mr. Alamieyeseigha he merely
honoured an agreement reached by his late boss.

“Let me say that after we came to office on May 29, 2007, two
major issues that we had to grapple with were the peace process in
the Niger Delta and growing menace of terrorism, driven largely by
the radical Islamic terror group Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah
wa’l-Jihād popularly known as Boko Haram.

“First, our oil production figures were ebbing due to militant
activities in the Niger Delta. The federation distributable accrual
was dwindling drastically when we took over due to the crisis in
the region and president Yar’Adua in seeking urgent solution to
increase the revenues of the federation offered amnesty to the
militant. One of their demands was that Alamieyeseigha be released
from detention and pardoned by president Yar’Adua.

“He accepted their term mandated me to ensure that my former
boss accepted a plea bargain and call the militant to order.
President Yar’Adua promised to grant Alamieyeseigha state pardon if
all parties were brought on board to the negotiation table to
restore peace in the region.

“I immediately carried out his instruction. Unfortunately, he
passed on before completely fulfilling his promise. When I became
president, I granted late Alamieyeseigha a state pardon, in
fulfilment of late President Yar’Adua’s earlier commitment.

“Unfortunately, this was frowned upon by some of my strongest
critics and some went berserk and haul all manners of insults at
me, including accusing me of being ‘clannish’ for granting state
pardon to the former governor because he was from Bayelsa
State.

“Alamieyeseigha’s pardon like every other goodwill gesture I had
made, soon become a tool to be used against me by the opposition,”
Mr. Jonathan wrote.

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