Posted by By Yusuph Olaniyonu in Lagos and Bolaji Adebiyi in Abuja on
An aide of Bayelsa State governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha yesterday denied the claim of a London based businessman, Mr. Terry Waya, that he provided the £500,000 bail bond to secure the governor's release from prison.
...Bayelsa governor extremely embarrassed, says aide
An aide of Bayelsa State governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha yesterday denied the claim of a London based businessman, Mr. Terry Waya, that he provided the £500,000 bail bond to secure the governor's release from prison.
Justice Rivlin of Southwark Crown Court had asked for £500,000 deposit as one of six conditions for Alamieyes-eigha's bail. The governor, on trial for money laundering, is currently restricted to London.
The aide who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity said Waya's claim to have paid the bail bond in a paid newspaper advertisement is false.
"I can tell you that it is not true, as Mr. Waya claimed in a newspaper advertisement that he paid for the governor's bail," he said adding that the false claim was worrisome to Alamieyeseigha.
The governor's aide said his boss was not happy with the statement credited to the businessman. He said that not only was the statement unfair to those who actually provided the funds for the bond, but that Alamieyeseigha found the language of the advertisement distasteful.
"I can tell you that the governor is quite disturbed by the claims of Mr. Waya. Even if it were true that he put up the money, and he did not, why would he go about shouting on roof tops that this is what he has just done? His Excellency is also not at all pleased with the name calling that he embarked upon, referring to some people as the anti-Christ. I can tell you that he is extremely embarrassed to have been associated with this whole Waya affair. In fact, I believe that Mr. Waya may be acting out a script which has very little to do with the recent travails of the governor," he said.
Asked to mention the name of the surety who paid for the bond, the aide said that the moeny was paid by true patriots who felt genuinely concerned by what he (the governor) was being subjected to by the London Metropolitan Police.
THISDAY, however, found out from sources close to Alamieyeseigha's family in London that Waya initially offered to pay the bail bond and his name was put forward to Justice Rivlin who accepted it.
According to the source, when the police checked Waya's account, they found that he only had a deposit of £250,000 following which the judge ordered Alamieyeseigha's counsel and Crown Prosecution Service counsel to revisit the issue and sort it out.
The following day, Waya was said to have quickly deposited another £250,000 in his account with Natwest Bank.
But when a request was made to the bank to make a draft for the £500,000 bail bond in favour of the Bow Street magistrate Court in London, Natwest's national headquarters said the manner of transfer of the last £250,000 would require clearance from the Scotland Yard.
THISDAY gathered that the bank wanted the police to furnish it with details of the case and the stage it had reached before it could act on the instruction to prepare a draft. The Scotland Yard which was particularly unhappy about the bail granted Alamieyeseigha was said to have failed to co-operate in granting Natwest's request.
The bank then informed Alamieyeseigha's counsel that it would need seven days to clear the last £250,000 deposited by Waya in the preparation of a draft.
The family source, however, said when it was realised that the implication of Natwest's position was that the governor would spend another seven days in Her Majesty's Prison in Brixton, they resorted to some members of the Ijaw Peoples Association in London "who came up with the £500,000 which was eventually used for the bail bond."
The source said when Waya made the statement in which he claimed he paid the bail bond, he thought it was still the money in his account at the Natwest bank that was used for the transaction.
Waya had in an advertisement in a national paper last Friday claimed that he provided the funds for the bond because he believed in the cause of the governor, who he called his friend. "Today, I deposited a cash sum of five hundred thousand pounds (£500, 000.00) bail bond as part of the conditions to secure the release from prison of his Excellency, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, the governor of Bayelsa State", he stated.
Waya had claimed that he had to fund the bond because it was almost impossible to get anyone else who could meet the terms set for a surety by the Southwark Crown Court. The court had said the sureties, among others, must be of impeccable character and unquestionable integrity, and must not be anyone with business links with the Bayelsa State Government or a member of the governor's family.
The businessman also said he believed that the governor's travail had nothing to do with the ongoing anti-corruption war campaign of the Obasanjo administration. He stated that Alamieyieseigha was being persecuted for daring to stand up to the President.
"I believe he is being unjustly persecuted for his beliefs and fight against an oppressive, repressive and incompetent regime that wants to rule beyond its mandated tenure", he had stated.
Alamieyeseigha is standing trial on three-count charge of money laundering at the Bow Street Magistrate court in London. The court at its last sitting on October 6 adjourned the case till November 3 to enable Scotland Yard conclude their investigations in Nigeria.