Posted by Bisi Olaniyi and Semiu Okanlawon on
Barring any last minute change of strategy, the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, may this week be named the state's acting governor.
Barring any last minute change of strategy, the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, may this week be named the state's acting governor.
Our correspondents gathered on Sunday that the 24 members of the State House of Assembly met in the office of the Speaker, Mr. Boyelayefa Debekeme, on Friday, to perfect the modalities for Jonathan to assume office as the acting governor.
The acting appointment is pending the time when a London court will dispose of the money laundering case against Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
A principal officer of the Assembly who confirmed this on Sunday, said, 'I can tell you authoritatively that we have decided that the deputy governor should takeover the running of the affairs of the state in acting capacity in the absence of our governor."
The source, who pleaded anonymity, said the lawmakers did not want a vacuum in state affairs.
He cited the state's 2006 appropriation bill as one example of a pending, crucial state matter.
Before the lawmakers met on Friday, security was beef up at the Assembly complex, a move widely interpreted as a prelude to the governor's impeachment.
The source, however, said that the lawmakers would wait for the outcome of the case against the governor.
It was gathered that the deputy governor was being pressured by prominent Bayelsans and PDP chieftains to accept the office of acting governor.
Meanwhile, the Special Assistant to the President on Public Communications, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has described as wild and unfounded, the allegation by Alamieyeseigha that there was a plot by the Presidency to eliminate him.
'That is a far-fetched and ridiculous allegation. This is not a banana Republic and neither is Mr. President a killer," Fani-Kayode told our correspondents on phone on Sunday.
The governor was also reported on Sunday by a national newspaper as tracing his travails to his support for the presidential ambition of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
Justifying the government's message to the London court through the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo, Fani-Kayode said that it was not a case of interference.
He added, 'The A-G was only pursuing the Federal Government's battle against corruption. It is not an indication of bias. We are simply following the due process. And there are antecedents where people in similar circumstances had escaped and if we don't act that way, we can be accused of colluding with them when at the same time, we claim to be fighting corruption.
'If he is facing trial, he should go and face the charges and stop blaming the Nigerian government for his problems."
On the allegation that the governor was in trouble over his support for Abubakar, the presidential aide said, he would not dignify the allegation with an answer.
He described it as 'an old story."
The PUNCH, Monday, November 14, 2005