Posted by By Innocent Anaba on
THE Ijaw People's Assembly (IPA), a group comprising various associations of the Ijaw nation in Lagos State has petitioned the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on the arrest and continued detention of Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State.
THE Ijaw People's Assembly (IPA), a group comprising various associations of the Ijaw nation in Lagos State has petitioned the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on the arrest and continued detention of Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State. The group wants Mr. Blair to use his good offices and all available diplomatic channels for the benefit of the Ijaw nation, Nigeria, and Britain.
IPA in a statement signed by Asu Beks, its President, said, "we are constrained to write an open letter on the current travails being experienced by Chief Alamieyeseigha who is being detained in London by the Metropolitan Police over alleged money laundering charges. The Governor had a major surgery in Germany and was on his way to Nigeria, he stopped over in London on September 10, 2005 to rest. He was promptly picked up by the Metropolitan Police and taken to his London home where, it is alleged, that the sum of one million pounds was found. No money was found on him during the arrest and interrogation by police.
"We still cannot understand why a serving state governor in a sovereign state as important as Nigeria would be subjected to such indignity in Britain, Nigeria's former colonial master. For a governor who enjoys immunity from prosecution in Nigeria and carried a diplomatic passport, it was indeed the height of travesty of the norms and conventions known to international law. According to the State Immunity Act of 1978 of the United Kingdom, nobody has the right to arrest or interrogate a person as high as the governor of a state who enjoys immunity."
According to IPA, "If the Nigerian State does not have sufficient laws to deal with the case at hand, at least, it can explore existing treaties between her and Britain and find a middle ground to extradite Governor Alamieyeseigha to Nigeria. Sometime in 2004, the son of the former British Prime Minister, Mark Thatcher, was implicated for his involvement in the plot to overthrown a sovereign African State.
In spite of the damning facts available, the British government mounted vigorous pressure on that country for his extradition. He was eventually released from jail and sent to Britain.
"The Liberian warlord and former president, Charles Taylor, is currently wanted by the Sierra Leone War Tribunal for crimes committed against his people. The Nigerian government has graciously given him asylum in Calabar, Southern Nigeria, against international public opinion. Why is President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current Chairman of African Union (AU) championing the rule of law outside the country while habouring a criminal within the country?
"Mr. Prime Minister, the problem of Nigeria is not caused by the Ijaws of the Niger Delta. Throughout history, we have fought gallantly and lost our precious sons in the struggle for emancipation from the cruel Nigerian State: Isaac Adaka Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa and now, they are about to use Governor Alamieyeseigha as another cannon fodder to quench the hunger of the Nigerian State".
"The accusation by the British police that Alamieyeseigha broke money-laundering laws in the UK is strange to us."