An online new site today generated controversy by saying that the duo of Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya and Major Gen. Andulkareem Adisa had already gotten a pardon from General Abdulsalami making the pardon granted them by the National Council of State a factual error, but NaijaPundit's investigations has shown that what they got from Abdulsalami was a clemency not a pardon.

A clemency is legally different from a pardon and frees a convicted person from prison sentence or prevent an accused from going to jail. A pardon on the other hand is a full and total clearance from any conviction and treats the conviction as though it never happened. You give clemency to a person who is serving or about to serve his sentence. You give pardons to anybody.

General Abdulsalami it would be recalled gave a clemency to Diya and his co-accused to enable his government free them after the death of Abacha. If you look at the decree he signed it specifically says 'clemency' and not pardon.

The difference in the meanings and implications if clemency and pardon is cleared up by the dictionary as follows;

clem·en·cy:
a : disposition to be merciful and especially to moderate the severity of punishment due
b : an act or instance of leniency

par·don:
: the excusing of an offense without exacting a penalty
or
a : a release from the legal penalties of an offense
b : an official warrant of remission of penalty

http://www.naijapundit.com/news/diya-others-got-clemency-not-pardon-from-abdulsalami

Many people prefer to wallow in deliberate ignorance when their minds are already made up. Efforts at enlightening them would amount to nothing but casting pearls before swines.

me like this clarification ooo

Typical of GEJ and his mouthpieces.
Question is what the terms mean legally not what webster dictionary says.

To keep it simple imagine clemency as the father, then pardon, commutation, and reprieve are his 3 sons. So the question is, did Gen. Diya get a commutation or a reprieve from Abdulsalami. Answer: No and No. Hence his clemency was a pardon. He already got a pardon from Abdusalami.

apala911: me like this clarification ooo

pro01: Many people prefer to wallow in deliberate ignorance when their minds are already made up. Efforts at enlightening them would amount to nothing but casting pearls before swines.

According to Femi Falana, a grant of clemency given by a head of state prior to the year 2000 is effectively the same as a presidential pardon.
This, to me, makes a whole lot of sense.

...Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), said both pardon and clemency conveyed the same meaning under the Nigerian constitution.

"When they are granted clemency, it is mercy by the state; it is the remission of their offence. They (government) have wiped out their offences and that means they never committed any offence," he told THISDAY last night.

He explained that Section 161 of the 1979 Constitution, amended by Constitution (Suspension and Modification) Decree of 1993 under which Abubakar exercised his powers is the same as Section 175 of the extant 1999 Constitution, which confers on the president the powers to grant a pardon.

Relating this to the pardon granted Yar'Adua, Diya and Adisa on Tuesday, Falana said: "The implication of what has happened is that the government did not take into consideration this legal instrument that was issued in March 1999."

In his opinion, the trio had effectively been granted a state pardon twice, first by the military regime headed by Abubakar, and now the Council of State.