Posted by By FEMI BABAFEMI on
Former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has been deported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he was taken for medical treatment few weeks ago.
•Where he had gone for medical treatment
Former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has been deported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he was taken for medical treatment few weeks ago.
Alamieyeseigha's deportation, about two weeks ago, by the United Arab Emirates authorities was allegedly prompted by a security breach involving the ex-governor.
However, the Ijaw Monitoring Group punctured the claim on Wednesday accusing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which has been prosecuting him for alleged money laundering offences of being the mastermind of the ex-Bayelsa chief executive's return to the country.
Alamieyeseigha, who is being detained at the Ikoyi, Lagos detention centre of the EFCC was flown to Dubai for proper medical treatment after his health deteriorated at the EFCC detention following multiple surgeries he undertook when he traveled to Germany in 2005.
An Ijaw activist and National Coordinator of the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), Comrade Joseph Eva, who spoke to Daily Sun on the development on Wednesday accused the EFCC of going to Dubai to harass UAE authorities to deport Alameiyeseigha even when he was still undergoing treatment.
According to him, "the Federal government of Nigeria through EFCC went to the extent of threatening the Dubai authorities with diplomatic row if they fail to deport someone that was still on the hospital bed."
Dapo Olorunyomi, Chief of Staff to EFCC chairman, though confirmed Alamieyeseigha's return to the country, denied allegations made by the IMG that the commission instigated his deportation.
The Ijaw activist further disclosed that since he was forcefully evicted from his hospital bed in Dubai, the EFCC had taken hold of Alamieyeseigha and had since kept him in a cell without mattress at the commission's detention centre in Lagos.
While alleging that Alamieyeseigha is presently chained to an iron rod in his cell and made to sleep on bare floor, Eva further alleged that the former governor had been denied access to family members and his doctors.
He stated that the latest development had shown that Alameiyeseigha's plight was beyond an anti-corruption fight but a deliberate attempt to waste the life of an Ijaw leader.
The activist, however, warned, "the Federal Government of Nigeria will hear from the Ijaw nation within the next two weeks because there will be more crisis in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government should be held responsible for the imminent disaster."
Alamieyeseigha was arrested in London on September 15, 2005. He was picked up in his London home in Edgeware, South-West London on his return to the British capital from Germany, where he underwent a surgery.
The then Bayelsa governor was later arraigned in court in London over alleged money laundering. While on bail, Alamieyeseigha escaped to Nigeria and assumed his official position. He was subsequently impeached by the Bayelsa State Assembly and arrested by the EFCC, which arraigned him on a 40-count charge bordering on corruption and money laundering.