Posted by Senan John Murray, London on
The trial of the Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, by the Bow Street Magistrate Court, London, was stalled on Thursday as his new legal team asked for the transfer of the case to a crown court.
The trial of the Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, by the Bow Street Magistrate Court, London, was stalled on Thursday as his new legal team asked for the transfer of the case to a crown court.
Our correspondent reported that the all-white legal team argued that Alamieyeseigha would receive a fairer hearing at an upper court.
The governor was arrested on September 15 at the London Heathrow Airport by officers of the Specialist and Economic Crime Unit of the London Metropolitan Police and charged with money laundering following the discovery of about £1.8 million cash on him.
A healthy looking Alamieyeseigha dressed in a light red jacket arrived the London court at about 10:17am accompanied by a large crowd of Nigerian sympathisers, but his case was called at 10:45am when he was ordered into the dock.
However, his appearance did not last more than 15 minutes. His lawyers asked for adjournment of the planned committal of the case to a crown court.
In the British legal system, the jurisdiction of the magistrate court is below that of a crown court. Also, in a magistrate court, the hearing and sentencing is by an individual judge, a situation Alamieyeseigha wants to avoid by opting for a jury trial in a crown court.
The presiding judge, District Judge, Mr. Timothy Workman, granted Alamieyeseigha's request and adjourned the committal application to Thursday, December 8 when the governor is due back at the Bow Street Magistrate Court.
Our correspondent gathered that his former all-Nigerian legal team, led by Professor Fidelis Odittah, QC, is not pleased with Alamieyeseigha for dumping it.
A member of the Nigerian team who declined being named, said, 'Knowing what we've done for him, of course we are disappointed, particularly now that he's got a white firm.
'We got him out of jail, but he felt that for the next phase of the trial, may be he should get a new set of lawyers. May be he felt the skin colour of a lawyer is what wins cases in this society. But it's not so; the law here is the law and is no respecter of race.
'Our plan was that having got him out, the next thing was to recover his travel documents so that he could, at least, return to his official duties in Nigeria while the trial continues, but obviously the plan may change."
Although Olutayo Arowojolu who led the governor's team of solicitors initially declined comment on Alamieyeseigha's decision to hire new lawyers, he, however, confirmed to our correspondent that, 'we are no longer representing him."
Asked what reason the governor gave for their sack, Arowojolu, a highly respected Nigerian solicitor in the United Kingdom replied, 'you should ask the man."
After the governor's arrest, the London Metropolitan Police seized his travel documents and restricted his movement.
The governor, however, panicked and hired Oditah in a desperate bid to reclaim his travel documents from the UK police authorities.
Suspecting that the governor could follow in the footsteps of his Plateau State counterpart, Joshua Dariye, who jumped bail under similar circumstances, the London Metropolitan Police ordered that Alamieyeseigha be moved to the Brixton Prison, famous for housing Nigerian drug traffickers arrested in the UK.
After close to three weeks of a frantic legal battle, Alamieyeseigha was finally released from jail last month and placed under house arrest with an order not to go within three miles of any UK airport or seaport pending the determination of the substantive suit which opened Thursday at the Bow Street Magistrate Court.
The PUNCH, Friday, November 04, 2005