Posted by Vanguard on
Interview with Gani FAWEHINMI
How would you describe what has happened?
What has happened shows the calibre of those at the helm of affairs in Nigeria at the local, state and federal levels.
It also shows that the apostles of the immunity clause, that is, Section 308 of the Nigerian constitution, have been put to shame by the dastardly attitude of the governor, someone who was elected to lead a people, to govern a state.
The circumstance of our political development, our overheated polity, starting with the third term agenda of Mr. President has now been compounded by the escape attitude of Alamieyeseigha, seem to be a pointer to a loss of our democratic process.
But he was welcomed by a tumultuous crowd in Yenegoa this morning?
In fact there are two dimensions to that too.
First is the fact that these are victims of the corruption, the profligacy and the money laundering propensity of the governor.
These are the victims, the people denied education, people denied water, people denied electricity, people denied wealth, people denied employment, these are the people whose money has been salted away in foreign banks.
And secondly, you know, corruption has so many children and it is very easy to gather crowd with looted resources of the people.
These are people who are giving bits and pieces here and there because of the corruption that has been so pervasive around the governor.
So, whatever they might have done, all I will say is that forgive them for they know not what they have done.
But there is this talk from the British High Commission here in Nigeria that they may issue warrant of arrest?
No, they will have problems with that. They will have problems because of the new dimension introduced by this charlatan into our constitutional disorder. Section 308 of the constitution prevents any arrest of a governor. It also forbids any trial of any governor in this country. That is a problem for the government of this country, the problem of the British and the problem of the Interpol.
We have said it times without number and we are now being justified and confirmed that in Britain, this man did not have in his possession travel documents and the argument in relation to immunity proffered by his lawyers and his people, since Friday, especially the exchanges that took place between the Bench and the Bar, he knew what the outcome would be and that was why he had to jump out of Britain illegally.
The problem that arises now is that under Section 308 of the Nigerian constitution, provides for the immunity clause and therefore, he can not be arrested in Nigeria. And the best way by which we can get him back to Britain is to impeach him under section 188 of the constitution.
This is so because what he has done amounts to Gross Misconduct which, under the constitution, is a good basis for his impeachment.
If the members of the state house of assembly has any honour in them, if they have any dignity in them, if they have any respectability left in them, they should quickly come together very quickly and impose Section 188 of the constitution, because what he has done amounts to Gross Misconduct which is a basis for his impeachment and once that is done, he would be out of office and he should be bundled into the next available plane back to London to face trial.
But do you think he can be impeached there in Bayelsa State when one considers the type of crowd which welcomed him?
I don't see why someone like him cannot be impeached.
And don't forget, he has escaped illegally into this country and that means he has no moral authority to govern that state. He has no moral ground.
Here is a man facing a three count charge of money laundering. He has stolen the wealth of his people, he has stolen the money of these people, he has degraded the decision of these people, he has assaulted (and perverted) the course of justice, social justice, because section 14 of the constitution states clearly that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of governance. But this man has stolen their money, stolen their wealth. So where's the difficulty in impeaching him, the facts are there.
He left Britain without authority. Don't forget Joshua Dariye escaped from the police.
This man escaped from the court. It was a court order. All his travel documents are with the court.
He must have forged papers to jump out of Britain so where is the moral authority to govern the state.
He has no moral authority to govern Bayelsa State again.
So, all he has done, amounted in the clearest term, to Gross Misconduct. And if any member of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly has any modicum of intelligence, any modicum of respectability, and modicum of decency left in any one of them, they should quickly get together and invoke Section 188 of the constitution and get this man out of office so that he can go to Britain, face the charges against him.
Looking at the way he escaped from Britain, he was said to have been dressed like a woman...?
That is the type of characters who are governing us, the type of people who are governing us. That is the conduct of the type of leaders we have. Dressed like a woman, like a pregnant woman, so we are told.
He went for tummy tuck in Germany. He was arrested in London for fraud.
He now goes ahead to dress like a woman again, looking very heavy as if he was about to deliver.
But what he has delivered is catastrophe for this country and this is going to likely raise a very serious diplomatic row between Nigeria and Britain.
Now every Nigerian would be looked at like a criminal
Before, we were beginning to change our status from that of a pariah nation, but now we are worse.
These are two state governors.
On the issue of it being two PDP governors?
Yes, that is it. PDP produced these two governors. The party produced this charlatan, the party also produced that catastrophic idiot called Dariye. These are the people governing us. Most of the governors in this country are rogues and it is confirmed because the poverty of this country is just too much.
We have so much money and yet we have so much poverty, you can not explain it except you begin to understand the level of corruption in this country.
And it is not only the governors; even at the Federal Executive Council, it is the same thing.
And don't forget that on May 14, 2005, President Obasanjo took N8.5 billion from Nigerians in the name of a private library against the code of conduct of this country, against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Act, against the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, Act, against all norms of decency, so it is corruption galore so really, we are in a mess in this country and I think Obasanjo should be held responsible for this because if he is going after Dariye, Alamieyeseigha and others, what about those other governors who have stolen so much. He knows them.