A FEDERAL High Court in Lagos yesterday sentenced former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Solomon Alamieyeseigha, to a two-year imprisonment. But the embattled former Air Force chief declared that he was never impeached from office and accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of “sending a battalion from the Nigerian Army who over-ran the State House of Assembly.”
Alamieyeseigha, who spoke in the open court minutes before the verdict yesterday, also declared that if he was much younger, he would not have pleaded to the guilty charge in exchange for the sentence passed on him by the trial judge, Mr. Justice Mohammed Shuiabu.
He said further that he had lost his wife and children. “I have gone through the shadow of death. I have been through hell since January 15, 2005 when I was arrested”, he said.
Recounting his ordeal in London, Alamieyeseigha said he was kept among mad people by the Metropolitan police. He said when he started bleeding inside, he was sent back to Nigeria by the British authorities.
Although his speech was not recorded by the trial judge, Alamieyeseigha told the court that he was still carrying metal in his body.
But counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, told the court yesterday that the agency had displayed magnanimity towards Alamieyeseigha by sending him to Dubai for further treatment. He said the EFCC had nothing to do with Alamieyeseigha’s recent deportation to Nigeria from Dubai whose authorities, he claimed, did it.
Alamieyeseigha who entered a plea-bargain deal with the EFCC forfeited property and shares worth billions of naira. They include Chelsea Hotel in Abuja, V8A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa; property in the United Kingdom and almost �1.5 million stake by his company, Santolina Investment Corporation in the United Kingdom.
But in an allocutus before the court, counsel to Alamieyeseigha, Chief T. J. Omonigbo Okpoko (SAN), pleaded leniency for the former governor. He stated that “whether good or bad, right or wrong,” the fact of the governor having served in public office should be taken into account by the trial judge.”
Recounting Alamieyeseigha’s days in the Air Force where he served for 19 years, he said he left voluntarily without blemish.
Urging the court not to impose the maximum penalty on Alamieyeseigha, he said there was no price for liberty. He also stated that the reason for his taking the guilty plea was due to his failing health.
Furthermore, Okpoko submitted that “in the place where Alamieyeseigha hails from, he is highly regarded and there is a duty for him to look after his people as I believe that he can still be of service to the nation and it will not be good for him to die in cell. This should be in the mind of this court when considering what punishment to give.
However, while Jacobs agreed with Okpoko on Alamieyeseigha’s public service records, he disagreed with him on the issue of passing sentence, saying: “It is not the duty of the prosecution or the defence to determine whether to pass maximum punishment on Alamieyeseigha.”
Jacobs then urged the court to order a forfeiture of the property to the government in order for them to be sold by the commission and the proceeds put in a consolidated account, which would accrue to Bayelsa State. The trial judge upheld this argument.
Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly on December 9, 2005, had been facing a 40-count charge of money laundering, illegal acquisition of property and false declaration of assets. Midway into the trial, he developed complications arising from a surgical operation he underwent in Germany in 2005.
On the request of the EFCC, the court granted him permission to travel to Dubai for further treatment with the anti-graft body pledging to ensure adequate medical care for the former governor.
However, he was deported from Dubai in controversial circumstances. This culminated in his re-arraignment yesterday with an amended 33-count charge.
Meanwhile, an Ijaw leader in Bayelsa State has asked the EFCC to return the N5 billion allegedly recovered from Alamieyeseigha.
Declaring that they were not against the court verdict on Alamieyeseigha, he said that Bayelsa State needs all the property and money recovered from the former governor to fund education, health and infrastructure.
In an interview with The Guardian, Joseph Evah of the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), also urged the EFCC to publish the outcome of its investigation of other Niger Delta former governors.
He went on: “We believe that the EFCC is now following due process as far as the cases are concerned. In the past one week, they have allowed family members, doctor and friends, including Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, to see Alamieyeseigha in detention.
“The Ijaw people want the EFCC to hand over whatever money or property they recovered from Alamieyeseigha. The EFCC said that Alamieyeseigha looted N5 billion. They should display the N5 billion and property they recovered from him. We are yet to see the money. We need the money for free education, health, etc, in Bayelsa State.”
On other former Niger Delta governors, Evah urged the commission to be open on the outcome of its investigation. He said that it was unfair for Alamieyeseigha to be in jail while some of his colleagues, who allegedly used state resources to fund secret cults that are unleashing a reign of terror in the region, are walking about free.
“If all the other Niger Delta former governors are clean, let the EFCC publish the result of their investigation. There is secrecy in the commission’s investigation. If the EFCC makes a pronouncement on the former governors, it will ease tension in the Niger Delta. Some governors used state funds to build up secret cults. The violence we are seeing now is traceable to that,” he stressed.