Former Bayelsa State governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has sensationally revealed why former President Olusegun Obasanjo went after him, culminating in his arrest in London in 2005 and subsequent impeachment and prosecution on allegations of money laundering.
Alamieyeseigha, who has been savouring his re-union with his people since Friday, when he was given an heroic welcome, said at a thanksgiving service held at the Royal House of Grace Church, Yenagoa on Sunday, that desperate moves by Obasanjo to perpetuate himself in office beyond 2007 was the cause of his problem with the former leader.
According to him, Obasanjo’s fears that he could not stop former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from contesting the 2007 presidential elections made him to go after those he feared could scuttle his ambition to stay beyond 2007.
His words: “On August 18, 2005 I got reports that I should make peace with then President Obasanjo because he had vowed to deal decisively with me and my brother governor, Chief James Ibori of Delta State. Coincidentally, that was the day we had Council of States meeting. After the meeting, I approached him and asked for an appointment to see him in the evening. He graciously accepted and asked me to come. I visited him around 8pm in his residence and coincidentally Chief Solomon Lar and his wife were also there. Because of the importance of the talk, I allowed Solomon Lar to briefly see Mr. President and leave.
“We went to his inner chambers and I said, ‘Mr. President what is the problem that you are pursuing me.’ He said yes, that he has been informed that I was going to run for the office of the vice president with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He asked me if he had ever told me that he was ready or prepared to leave in 2007. He said, ‘let me tell you, Alamieyeseigha, I am not leaving.’ I asked who told him I was going to run with Atiku as vice president. He said Atiku told him.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, I am not aware and what made you think I cannot be president? Why must I run as VP?’ I said, ‘what special qualifications do you people think you have that I don’t have.’ He said that 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 was going to deal decisively with Ibori and me. I told him, ‘Mr. President, you are the luckiest person I have seen on planet earth. You are three times president, you are old, you are rich, your children have grown old and they are all out of school, so what else are you looking for.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, I bet with my life you would leave on May 29, 2007.’ I asked him not to threaten me again.”
Alamieyeseigha disclosed that the initial plot was to get him arrested as a terrorist after planting drugs and explosives in a British Airways plane he was to board on his way to Germany, noting, however, that the plan failed, when, by intuition, he changed his mind at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and bought new tickets that took him to Germany en-route Dubai.
On his re-emergence in Nigeria after he was arrested in London, he maintained that the British authorities allowed him to return to Nigeria after they reviewed his cases, especially when the then Attorney-General, Chief Bayo Ojo, flew to London and said the Federal Government did not want him to return, which he said further fuelled the British government’s suspicion that his case had political undertone.
He said: “Two days after my bail application was denied, the British took me away and brought me to Ivory Coast without any traveling document and I could not pass through immigration because I had no passport. I don’t speak French, which would have enabled me to interact with the people.
I was hungry because we got there in the evening. I was given little money by the British. I asked why they were allowing me to go; they said they were no longer interested since the attorney general came; that it was beyond what they were seeing. They said I should go and solve my political problem back home.
“Luckily for me, as I was at the Ivory Coast airport, somebody tapped and it turned out to be a friend, Alhaji Yahaya. I asked what he was doing there and he said he was on a business trip and that he was going back. I asked if I could follow him and he agreed. When the pilots saw me, they were happy and I was flown to Lagos and was told to wait in the aircraft while another plane was arranged to take me to Port Harcourt from where I was driven to Amassoma.”
He revealed that his alleged deportation from Dubai was masterminded in Nigeria just because the then Vice President Abubakar visited him.
“In Dubai, I was guarded by 10 security men. But midway into my treatment, a security letter was generated that I had been declared a persona non grata, that the Dubai government did not want me, that I was spending money from the proceeds of hostage-taking and bunkering and so I was no longer wanted in Dubai. They physically came to take me away. The reason they did all that was because Atiku Abubakar was passing through Dubai and he decided to come and see how I was faring. They now alleged that we were planning to overthrow the Federal Government.”
He said his decision to go back to the same Dubai, which the government said no longer wanted him, two weeks after he was released from prison, was to expose the deceit of the then Obasanjo government.
Alamieyeseigha said he had come out of his experience wiser and stronger, adding that he would remain committed and fight for the people because nobody can intimidate the Ijaws.
“I don’t have to be in government to contribute my quota. There are so many things I can do and believe me, Ijaw nation has come to stay. One hundred times type of Obasanjo cannot oppress us,” he said.
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpage...9-2007-004.htm
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Why Obasanjo came after me – Alamieyeseigha
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