Posted by By PHILIP NWOSU with Agency report on
A Magistrate's Court in London has ruled that embattled Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha be kept in custody of the Metropolitan Police pending the conclusion of investigation on charges of money laundering.
A Magistrate's Court in London has ruled that embattled Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha be kept in custody of the Metropolitan Police pending the conclusion of investigation on charges of money laundering.
The court said the governor would remain in police custody until October 6, when the case is expected to come up for further hearing.
The governor, who appeared in a United Kingdom court Tuesday on charges of money laundering to the tune of £1.8 million ($3.2m) found in cash and in his bank accounts, is facing a three-count charge.
Reports monitored in Lagos said the magistrate denied Alamieyeseigha bail because of fears that he might leave the UK, as Plateau State Governor, Chief Joshua Dariye, did last year.
However, Alamieyeseigha has accused the British authorities of acting in a prejudiced and neo-colonialist manner. His attorney, Barrister Fidelis Odittah, a Queens Cousel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had gone to the Redbridge Magistrate's Court in London to seek the release of the governor's passport, as well as unconditional bail.
It would be recalled that Alamieyeseigha was originally arrested on September 15 at Heathrow Airport in London on his way from Germany, where he underwent a surgery. Detectives found almost £1 million in cash in his west London home.
The application filed on Tuesday by Alamieyeseigha's counsel was meant to nullify the condition which required him to submit his travel documents and report daily to the Desk Officer at the Ilford Police station in London.
"The condition technically kept Alamieyeseigha in London and ensured he could not travel out of the United Kingdom. The design was to prevent a situation like that of Plateau State Governor Joshua Dariye who returned to Nigeria when he was released on bail for the same offence as Alamieyeseigha and has refused to report back to the police," a source in London said.
But Odittah and other counsel, Damola Aderemi, barrister, and Tayo Arowojolu, solicitor and chairman of Society of Nigerian Lawyers in the UK, contended before the magistrate that the police did not have the powers to attach conditions to Alamieyeseigha's bail and thus the bail condition was unlawful.
Daily Sun learnt that at Tuesday's hearing, the counsel representing the London Police agreed that the police ought not to attach conditions to the bail as they were still investigating the money laundering allegations.
The magistrate ruled that the bail condition was unlawful and therefore null and void.
But the police, sensing that on the strength of the ruling Alamieyeseigha may return to Nigeria since the ruling meant he should retrieve his travel documents before the November 15 date when the police plan to formally charge him to court, accosted him outside the premises of the Redbridge Magistrate's court and re-arrested him.
The police said he was re-arrested based on fresh evidence, the only true grounds on which such action could be taken.
Wednesday's arraignment was therefore a move in form of a holden charge to enable the police secure a court order to detain the governor legally.