All may not be over yet for convicted former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, politically speaking, although the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party appears to be making a serious effort at repackaging him.

The first test-case of the party’s desperate attempt to bring him back to public reckoning was last Saturday’s governorship campaign of the removed governor of the state, Timpreye Sylva. The campaign in Yenagoa, the state capital, which was attended by President Umaru Yar’Adua and other high-ranking state and party officials, was in aid of the removed governor’s bid for the May 24 rerun governorship election.

The Appeal Court, Port Harcourt had on April 15 removed Sylva from office and ordered a rerun election. This was sequel to the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Action Congress in the April 14, 2007 election, Mr Ebitimi Amgbare.

Alamieyeseigha, who was the governor of Bayelsa State from May 29, 1999 to December 9, 2005, when he was impeached by the state house of assembly for corruption-related offences, was one of the PDP topshots that mounted the rostrum with President Yar’Adua to campaign for Sylva. Other personalities on the rostrum were Alamieyeseigha’s former deputy, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan; PDP National Chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor; Senate President, Senator David Mark; Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu; and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe.

Also at the event were the governors of Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and Godswill Akpabio respectively; Bayelsa’s acting governor, Mr. Werinipre Seibarugu; Sylva and his removed deputy, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi; the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr Timi Alaibe; and the NDDC Chairman, Ambassador Sam Edem. Incidentally, Ebebi was the speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly which removed Alamieyeseigha, who was subsequently flown to Abuja in handcuffs in a police helicopter.

The PDP, desirous of recapturing the oil-rich state, in spite of opposition from the AC, felt the need to deploy every arsenal at its disposal in the push to return Sylva to office. Thus, in spite of a bomb blast that rocked its state secretariat on Thursday, May 8, the party’s leadership dragged Yar’Adua and other PDP chieftains to Yenagoa. Saturday Punch gathered that the party included Alamieyeseigha in the team because of his perceived influence in the politics of the state and the Niger Delta.

Saturday Punch learnt that the decision to include Alamieyeseigha was initially rejected by some elements in the state chapter of the party, who feared that his status as an ex-convict might be a minus for the campaign. But it was learnt that such misgivings were later overturned by the national leadership, which insisted that all hands must be on the deck for the ‘crucial Bayelsa assignment.’ Those in support of Alameyeseigha had reasoned that his non-inclusion could leave him with no other choice than to align with the opposition. There was the consideration that the former governor still has his own share of followership in the state. His inclusion, according to a source, was also intended to show the world that the PDP is still intact in Bayelsa, despite the controversies that have rocked the state chapter since 2005.

So, Alamieyeseigha, who was not in the team that welcomed the President’s entourage to the state, emerged with other personalities on the rostrum, where he also was assigned some minutes to address the crowd. The former governor, who looked every inch his former self, urged the PDP’s supporters to shun violence in the coming election in order not to jeopardise the current peace in the state.

The former governor said he was not at the rally to campaign for any candidate, because , according to him, the outcome of the May 24 re-run election had already been ‘determined’ by the size of the crowd at the rally. He said further that the state was recording steady progress and urged the people to maintain the tempo. According to him, there will be wild jubilation a day after the May 24 election. His address, like those of the President and other speakers, was received with jubilation by the crowd.

And as if to demonstrate his popularity in the politics of the state, some of his loyalists also carried placards with positive inscriptions about him. These placards jostled for attention with others praising the President, the vice-president, the PDP and Sylva. Also on hand to add some spice to the rally was Alamieyeseigha’s favourite dance group from his native Amassoma.

Alamieyeseigha was arrested on September 15, 2005 at the Heathrow Airport, London by the Metropolitan Police, after he had undergone a tummy tuck in Germany. He was arrested by British detectives on suspicion of involvement in money laundering. Over £1 million was allegedly found in his possession, a sum which he reportedly told British detectives was meant to pay the school fees of his children and indigent Niger Delta students.

He, however, jumped bail on November 18, after he failed to report to Scotland Yard and escaped from the UK, allegedly disguised as a woman. He reappeared in Ammasoma three days later, a development that enraged then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who sought to know how the UK authorities allowed Alamieyeseigha to escape, a few months after another governor, Joshua Dariye of Plateau State had similarly fled from justice in London. Alamieyeseigha was eventually impeached on December 9.

He underwent a two-year trial, which was marked by controversy over his state of health and dramatic appearances at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. He was finally found guilty by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu of the Federal High Court, Lagos on July 26, 2007 on a six-count charge of fraud, with each count carrying a two-year prison sentence. He was taken to Ikoyi Prisons, Lagos and subsequently released the next day, after authorities of the Nigeria Prison Service had calculated his sentence and concluded that he had spent his term.

He was also ordered to forfeit his property at V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa; 2, Marscibit Street, Ishaku Rabiu Estate, Off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja; 34, Amazon Street, Maitama, Abuja; N1 billion shares in the defunct Bond Bank; $160,000 in account number 005482562491 with an American bank; and N105 million in account number 2010062850006 with the former Bond Bank. On July 30, the court indicted some companies, which were listed as Alamieyeseigha’s co-accused - Solomon & Peters Ltd; Santolina Investment Corporation; Pesal Nigeria Ltd, Kpedefa Nigeria Ltd, Jetty Properties Ltd and Herbage Global Services Ltd - and ordered them to be wound up. He also ordered their assets to be sold and the proceeds paid into the coffers of the Bayelsa State Government. It equally ordered the forfeiture of cash in local and foreign currencies and various properties in Nigeria and the UK owned by the companies.

After his release, a grand rally was organised by the Bayelsa State Government to welcome him. However, questions are being asked about why an administration that has widely canvassed respect for the rule of law and probity ignored the implications of Alamieyeseigha’s appearance at the rally for Nigeria’s image. According to Lagos lawyer and General Secretary, Democratic Socialist Movement, Mr. Segun Sango, the Bayelsa rally was a “show of shame. It only further confirmed the rot in the system and the fact that anybody saying that there is any significant difference in the regime of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua is making a great mistake.”

The AC chairman in Bayelsa, Mr. Diepreye Dede, was philosophical in reacting to the development. He said, “It is their (PDP’s) affair, and it is their responsibility to continue to explain it. We are not moved by the action, as we have the mass of the people on our side.”

There is the suspicion about the real motive of the Yar’Adua administration in Alamieyeseigha’s matter. While the former governor was treated by Obasanjo’s administration as an example of its determination to fight corruption, it appears as if the current government wants to reverse that. For instance, the vice-president was said to have held a secret meeting with Alamieyeseigha sometime last year at his official lodge in Ikoyi, Lagos, where the idea of a plea bargain was said to have been sold to the former governor. The discussion is believed to have hastened the conclusion of the trial and his subsequent release.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/may/17/400.html



AND THIS IS WHY THE COUNTRY IS SO BACKWARDS!

Why are you surprise? That is Nigeria: The land of hopes, progress and a bright future. Where criminals are recycled quicker than a piece of paper.

Unless something is done real fast,Nigeria is gradually becoming reknown as a country of rogues,we've already had 419,fraudsters as MP's,soon we'll be having armed robbers as Governors,it's a shame indeed,ever wonder why the country is no longer respected in the international communities.I'm indeed very sorry for Nigeria.

This will be even more pathetic if there was actually free elections. I mean, if the people of bayelsa state find solidarity with a political party that is not ashamed to use an ex convict as its poster boy and flavour of the month and then go out on election day and vote for that party then that is their own business. I just hope that those same people will be courteous enough not to come and bore everyone with rants about how their state is not making any progress and that their leaders are corrupt, because that is when it might become quite irritating.

na today? abeg next! we don see all this one tire.

Ala is a certified crook. I don't know why they force all these kind of leaders on us. The man is of the worst kind.

even the people (bayelseans) are praising him!


_{how much is a Barrett99 rifle?}

oludayo20:

Unless something is done real fast,Nigeria is gradually becoming reknown as a country of rogues,we've already had 419,fraudsters as MP's,soon we'll be having armed robbers as Governors,it's a shame indeed,ever wonder why the country is no longer respected in the international communities.I'm indeed very sorry for Nigeria.

We already had one as governor for 8 years; Ibori. A convicted one for that matter, home and abroad.

Besides, whats the difference between an armed robber and a millitant? All past and present south south governor fall into this category, except Duke, maybe.

the then president (ob, ) was from the prisons too so what is the difference.

abeg dont blame the man,even though he is as bad as the worst of them but dont forget he paid dearly for it,not to talk of the ill health he suffers, the guy has to recover himself financially and he is sticking with the winning side,i dont see atiku and the ac rewarding him like the pdp would

it is nothing but stupidity bordering on madness for a people to continuously recycle the same crooks who have looted their treasury in the past.

i'm embarrassed for Nigerians