In what many are calling a political mathematical blunder, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, has said that recently pardoned ex-convict DSP Alamieyeseigha would have still been qualified to partake of the 2015 elections if a pardon had not been granted.
“Whether President Jonathan grants him pardon or not, by 2015, he will be fully qualify and eligible to run for election in 2016. I mean, if it is done now, what difference does it make? People are talking to me about timing. This is something that in the next two or three years will really expire and he will be a free man,” Okupe said.
Okupe, stated this during a press conference in Abuja, where he also said rights and privileges of Alamieyeseigha had been restored with the pardon, adding that he could now pursue any calling of his choice.
“If a man is granted presidential pardon, all his rights and privileges are returned to him. He can sell groundnut, he can do business, he can go into politics, he can go abroad, he can do whatever he likes,” he said.
The problem is 2006 – 2015 is only nine years, so in fact the ex-convict Governor did need the pardon to be incontroversially eligible to contest in 2015.