Diepreye Alamieyeseigha suspended his longstanding silence this week to recall his ordeal as a resource control agitator marked down for execution by Aso Rock, the United States and the United Kingdom, all of which he said were convinced his activities could frustrate world oil supply.
In 2005, Alamieyeseigha was impeached as Bayelsa State Governor for alleged corruption, in a backdoor arrangement dictated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but criticised by legal minds and democracy groups countrywide.
He was later convicted of corruption and money laundering, the first Governor to be so treated under the anti-graft crusade widely believed to be political.
In an interview session dotted with painful memories, Alamieyeseigha revealed how former President Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly resorted to blackmailing him so he could opt out of his relationship with former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, whose Presidential ambition Obasanjo vowed to frustrate, including destroying (Atiku’s) associates.
Alamieyeseigha also claimed that the EFCC had no convictable case against him, and insisted the conviction was stage-managed, culminating in the agency allegedly begging him to plead guilty and promising a light prison sentence to be erased by a Presidential pardon.
He recalled how, “Under the circumstances, I had two options: to be there (in detention) and die in the process, or to accept what they have asked me to do to be alive and fight another day.
“I did not (seek plea bargaining), because there is no way the EFCC would have successfully prosecuted and convicted me, since the issues were very clear – purely political – and because of the extent they had gone, asking me to go would have been to them the end of the EFCC.
“So, they were virtually begging on their knees, sending people to me that I should just please accept the package they have arranged so that I could leave.
“You remember that (former EFCC Chairman, Nuhu) Ribadu had gone to the United Nations to say that he had recovered N50 billion from me, gone to the Senate that he had recovered N50 billion from me, that I have a refinery, according to them, in Ecuador, even though I have never been to Ecuador all my life. They also said I bought a wristwatch of 2.5 million Pounds from the Sultan of Brunei. Where is that wristwatch? Nobody knows.
“The N50 billion (Ribadu) recovered from me, whether it was stacked in a house and they saw it and used it, how many trailers evacuated it, nobody has asked such question. Where is the money? Nobody is asking. I did not work with the Federal Government, I worked with Bayelsa State, so the money is supposed to have been returned to Bayelsa State, or it is supposed to be in a bank yielding interest in whose account? Nobody is asking these questions.”
Alamieyeseigha blamed the international conspiracy to assassinate him on Obasanjo whom he alleged had told the U.S. and Britain that Nigeria could not guarantee free oil flow with him as Governor of a state boiling with militancy.
“There were so many things that happened. One was my stand on the Niger Delta. I was firm and resolute that certain things have to be corrected in this country, and that is why I came to the world. I will continue to fight for the rights of my people under the umbrella of a united Nigeria. I had never, and will never, advocate or support secession. We must be in this country, but must exist and be recognised as a people that have done so much for this country in terms of economy.
“Without the Niger Delta, there would be no Presidential system; anybody aspiring to the position of President or any elective post at the federal level is because of the resources from the region. And everybody must acknowledge this, while the Niger Delta people are given their dues.
“Two, I had a nasty conversation with Obasanjo, a very nasty one, when he threatened me that Atiku had told him that I was going to run with him as Vice President and that he would never allow Atiku, over his dead body, to be the President of Nigeria.
“He also threatened to show me that he was not only the President but also the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He said after all, I am an ex-military man like himself, that I ought to be working with him rather than work with a bloody civilian like Atiku, and that he was going to destroy me.
“At that point I told him he cannot destroy me, and that he should stop the threat. Then he told me that he was not leaving in 2007, that he would continue in office.
“I reminded him of certain things, because I have known him since 1966. I am aware of all his activities in this country. If there is anyone who is ungrateful to God on planet earth it is Obasanjo. I have no apologies for that. He is one of our leaders, but there are good leaders and there are bad leaders.
“Leaders are judged on the quality of their vision, but (Obasanjo) was a natural disaster that befell this country. I told him point blank that he was going to leave. I told him my loyalty to him ended on May 29, 2007.
“Then he resorted to using Ribadu, Nasir El-Rufai and all members of that clique to convince America that as long as I remained as Bayelsa State Governor he could not guarantee the free flow of oil.
“And America reasoned that ‘we cannot afford to have another Saddam Hussein in this world. Because 25 percent of our energy requirement is to come from the Gulf of Guinea by 2015, if there is such a man that will stop us from having oil uninterrupted then waste him.’ So, the FBI, CIA, and M16 conspired to assassinate me. Many things happened, and if I had continued in office they would have got me.
“There was a plan to put drugs and explosives in my bag on my way to Britain, using the British Airways. Every movement was monitored. But God was with me, because I changed my mind when I got to the airport and bought Emirate Airways ticket.
“If I had not done that, if I had flown BA, they would have arrested and charged me for terrorism and held me for three months incommunicado, without anybody talking to me. A lot of things happened.
“This was disclosed to me by a member of the British House of Lords through discussion. They always wondered what had happened. They were not surprised when the court let me off the hook, because the British Government had nothing against me.
“Former Attorney General of the Federation, Bayo Ojo, was already sleeping, because I confronted him, when Obasanjo asked him to proceed to London to ask the court not to allow me to come to his own country, my own country.
“On his way from the airport he headed straight to the court saying: ‘My lord, I, Bayo Ojo, SAN and AGF and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, bring a message to you from the President of Nigeria that we don’t want this Governor, DSP Alamieyeseigha, to come to Nigeria, he should not be allowed to come home.’
“The Judge dropped his pen and asked again whether Ojo was what he called himself. The Judge asked again, are you the Minister of Justice and AGF of Nigeria? He said yes my lord. The Judge replied, ‘you are writing history because in my 35 years as a Judge in Britain it has never been heard in that a sovereign nation went to another sovereign nation to tell them that its own national should not be allowed to come back home, moreso an elected Governor. This is supposed to be an elected Governor of a state.
“The Judge told him whether he knew that there are certain functions, to the best of his knowledge, that cannot be delegated. Bayo Ojo said ‘he has a Deputy Governor that can deputise for him, we are not going to miss him if he is kept here.’
Then the Queens Counsel said: ‘Nigeria is very important to the UK my lord, what the AGF is asking for is co-operation between the Nigerian and UK Governments. That was when the Judge then said: ‘Ok, bail application denied’. So, a lot of things happened.”
Alamieyeseigha welcomed the creation of Niger Delta Ministry, but warned the aim could be destroyed by politics, lack of sufficient funding, and corruption which hampered earlier initiatives.