A former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, on Sunday said ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo was behind his ordeal with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Alamieyeseigha, who spoke at a thanksgiving service for him at the Royal House of Grace Church, Yenagoa, claimed that Obasanjo and some foreign powers viewed him as an impediment to their alleged oil deals in the Gulf of Guinea.
He also accused the Obasanjo administration of making the British Government to charge him for terrorism and not money laundering.
The former governor, who spoke for the first time since he ragained his freedom on July 26, 2007, said he was detained with madmen for 15 days in a London prison.
He traced his travails to his refusal to back Obasanjo’s botched third term agenda and his closeness to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
According to him, the former President had on August 18, 2005 sought his support to stay in power beyond 2007 but when he declined, he(Obasanjo) directed the Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to deal ‘decisively’ with him.
Alamieyeseigha added that Obasanjo also instructed the EFCC to deal with a former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, for also not supporting the third term agenda and for being close to Abubakar.
The former governor described his ordeal as a price he had to pay for leadership and added that he had overcome because God had not finished with him.
He said, “I really walked through the valley of the shadow of death. I am alive by the grace of God.
“I will document the experience in a readable form, for historians, political scientists and others to benefit from.
“On August 18, 2005, I received a call from Ribadu, asking me to go and reconcile with the then President. He (Ribadu) said that he had been directed by the former President to deal decisively with me and Ibori.
“Coincidentally, that was the day we held a Federal Executive Council meeting. I visited Obasanjo around 8pm on that day.
“Chief Solomon Lar and his wife were there. Obasanjo said he had been informed that I was going to run with Abubakar, but that he was not prepared to leave in 2007.
“I asked him (Obasanjo) who informed him that I was going to run with Atiku as his deputy. He said Abubakar told him. I then said I was not aware and that I was also qualified to be Nigeria’s President and not deputy.
“Obasanjo said he was not only the President, but also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and that he would deal decisively with me. I was very frank with him, but I will not share those details.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, you are the luckiest (ex-President) I have ever seen on earth, having been President three times (twice as civilian president and once as a head of state). I told him he would leave on May 29, 2007 and I asked him not to threaten me again.
“Before we left the Villa (Aso Rock), Obasanjo said he would leave me alone, if I could leave Abubakar and support him.”
The former governor disclosed that on August 26, 2005, he flew to Germany through Dubai, for medical attention but unknown to him, the Presidency had planned to put hard drugs and explosives in his luggage in order to have him arrested as a terrorist.
He claimed that after he had had an operation in a German hospital, Obasanjo called him and wished him quick recovery.
Alamieyeseigha said that shortly after the ‘get-well message’, he started receiving ‘funny’ telephone calls.
He said that on September 15 when he was discharged, two of his children joined him to move his luggage to London where they reside.
Upon landing at the Heathrow Airport, he said, over 50 policemen, who came to arrest him, told him that they had a directive from Nigeria to do so.
He claimed that Ribadu was at the airport to identify him and that when his luggage was searched, no explosive, gun or hard drug was found by the policemen.
Despite the fact that nothing incriminating was found on him, he said that the Police still went ahead to prosecute him after detaining him with madmen.
The former governor said the presiding magistrate expressed surprise that a sovereign nation could ask another nation not to allow its citizen not to return home to be tried for ‘whatever offence.’
Alamieyeseigha claimed that the British Government facilitated his escape to Cote d’Ivoire, having been disappointed by the conduct of the then Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), who told the magistrate not to allow him to return to Nigeria.
He said upon getting to Cote d’Ivoire, he met a friend , Alhaji Yahaya, who asked him to join his aircraft to Lagos.
According to him, in Lagos, another plane was arranged to take him to Port Harcourt, from where he travelled by road to Amassoma, his hometown, in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.
Alamieyeseigha said immediately the Presidency learnt that he had returned, it ordered that his home be destroyed.
“This, he said, made him to relocate to the Government House, Yenagoa.
He wondered why Obasanjo, whom he assisted to be re-elected in 2003, chose to persecute him.
The former governor also alleged that the Obasanjo regime extended its fangs to a former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr. Boyelayefa Debekeme.
Alamieyeseigha said that Debekeme, who was detained in an underground cell to facilitate his (Alamieyeseigha’s) December 9, 2005 impeachment, was later charged with terrorism.
He said that after his removal and movement to Abuja, the Presidency directed the day that he should be returned to Britain.
Alamieyeseigha claimed that he was taken to the Immigrations office at midnight for another passport.
He said that after the passport was issued, the British High Commission refused to give him a visa and that his friends in government advised him not to eat or drink, to avoid being poisoned.
He also flayed the claim that Abubakar’s visit to him in Dubai in July was ment to overthrow the government.
The EFCC, according to him, later generated a letter in Dubai, that he was a persona-non-grata.
Alamieyeseigha declared that nobody could intimidate him and that 100 Obasanjos could not suppress the Ijaw nation.
He stated that he had forgiven all the members of the Bayelsa House of Assembly, who removed him, as well as his then deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, now VP, who ‘ran away’ because of the pressure.
The former governor, who returned to his home state last Friday, said because the government did not know what to do with him , it asked him to plead guilty.
He said that he agreed to do so to stop the killings in the Niger Delta.
Alamieyeseigha was on July 26, 2007 jailed for 12 years, on a six-count charge, with each count attracting a two-year jail term.
The 12-year jail term was to be served concurrently, making him to spend just two years in prison.
Since Nigerian prisons take nine months to be one year, this implies that Alamieyeseigha had served out his jail term, having been in detention since December 9, 2005, and he was eventually released from Ikoyi Prisons in Lagos on July 26.
Bisi Olaniyi, Yenagoa
The Punch
Monday, September 3, 2007
