Posted by Emma Amaize, Regional Editor and Sam Oyadondgha, Yenagoa on
FIVE days after the dramatic affair, the Metropolitan Police in London, British government, Federal Government of Nigeria and a lot of persons who were thunderstruck by the audacious display are yet to wake up from the shock and its after-effects.
FIVE days after the dramatic affair, the Metropolitan Police in London, British government, Federal Government of Nigeria and a lot of persons who were thunderstruck by the audacious display are yet to wake up from the shock and its after-effects. But the reality is that the Bayelsa State governor, Chief Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha who was supposed to be on an extraordinarily strict surveillance in Britain following his trial by a United Kingdom court on charges of money laundering, is flesh and blood in Nigeria.
His eternally-confounding breakaway from London and emergence, Monday, November 21 in his state was a master strategy to counter the plot by Abuja Forces to use the State House of Assembly to commence impeachment process against him 24 hours later, that is Tuesday, November 22. Strikingly, those who want him put out of political limelight are equally formidable. Few hours after his arrival, men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) moved and herded majority of the members of the State House of Assembly, who the 'Ijaw governor general" had returned to lobby, to Lagos. The EFCC is holding the legislators in their groins over the questionable manner they handled the N100 million each of them allegedly collected for projects in their respective constituencies. Thus, the cajoling game starts.
Unfortunately for Alamco, the popular name for Alamieyeseigha in Bayelsa, he could not speak with the lawmakers and their new leadership before they were moved to Lagos on the invitation of the EFCC and events have been happening at a very hasty and dizzying pace. From Lagos, the new Speaker, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi, publicly announced on Tuesday that an impeachment notice had been served on the governor. With the new posture of the Assembly, which stood firm behind the governor before now, the days of Governor Alamieyeseigha at the Creek Haven, Yenagoa appear to be more numbered than ever before.
But the governor says he is in-charge and had resumed duty. Not even the argument that his 120-day leave has not expired and the contention that his deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who was confirmed Acting Governor by the House, some few days earlier, has not handed over to him could deter him from assuming the reins of power. However, assumption of office as governor of the state, Tuesday, has landed some police officers, including his chief security officer, aide-de-camp and camp commandant in trouble. Police authorities summoned the trio to Abuja, Wednesday, for the parade of honour that was mounted for the governor by policemen when he returned to Government House, Yenagoa. As at Wednesday evening, the Accountant General of the state, Mr. Stephen Enamamu had been picked up by security agents and was being detained in a prison cell at Abuja while the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Solomon Apreala and the Treasury Officer have also been summoned.
Alamieyeseigha raises alarm the whole thing was designed to strangulate the state economically, seize its allocation, rubbish and bring its leadership to disrepute. Indeed, the past six days have been more than eventful in Bayelsa. In this report, Saturday Vanguard takes you on a journey of the dramatic escape of the governor from London, his activities since he returned and new chapter of the battle against him.
Closely guarded plot
Up till Wednesday evening when he made a special broadcast to the people of Bayelsa state, the governor who was reported to have fled London under the guise of a daughter of Eve still maintained: 'I did not know how I arrived Yenagoa. It is God that did it." Saturday Vanguard learnt that except for the operatives that were hired for his celebrated escape, Alamieyeseigha kept his plans very close to his chest.
His deputy, Dr. Jonathan and other top government officials did not know about his coming back that Monday and some did not even know that he was in the state until they saw him at about 10.30 a.m. in Government House, Yenagoa. Commissioner for Information, Culture, Tourism and Strategy, Mr. Oronto Douglas said: 'Honestly, I was not aware that the governor was coming, I saw him in the state like any other person". A source said that those who stood surety for the governor in London were not briefed about Alam's scheme because that would have jeopardized its success. The question now is: what is the fate of these sureties?
It was not known whether the governor gave a deeper thought to the sureties' safety before he took to his heels as their kindness was not supposed to be repaid with possible sentence by the court. And only on Thursday, Mr. Terry Waya who stood as surety for Alams was said to have been quizzed by the London police. It remains to be seen how he will wriggle out of this mess.
That the governor disguised like a woman to leave London by train for France from where he connected a flight to Cameroun and sailed to Amassoma, his country home in Bayelsa state by boat is no longer in doubt even though the man is still keeping mute on how he actually executed his flight.
However, a man of God was said to have told his congregation during the church''s service the previous day that the governor would return to the country miraculously the next day while the spiritualist, Dr.Tuesday Panya who was reportedly recruited by some aides of the governor while he was still holed up in London predicted that the governor would return but pointed out that it was not yet over.
Mind-boggling exploit
His Amassoma kinsmen were roused from sleep in the early hours of Monday when they observed the way and manner vehicles were moving into Alamieyeseigha's imposing mansion in the community. Some people woke up to find out exactly what was going on because they had long been praying and anxiously waiting for his return. News was sent to the traditional head of the town and soon, the town crier announced to the elation of the people that the governor was back in flesh and blood.
Drums were rolled out in celebration as the people danced and danced. There was no more sleep as men, women and children followed him at dawn to Yenagoa, the state capital, where a diverse crowd trooped to Government House to welcome him back. Perhaps, Alamieyeseigha is still keeping the intricate details of the story to himself so as not to give his opponents vital ammunitions with which they could fire him. Already, the security agents who were supposed to be monitoring his movement in London are under probe in connection with his escape.
FG, EFCC connection
Alamieyeseigha's appearance in Bayelsa, Monday, was the least expected thing by the Federal Government or the EFCC. But the forces against the governor moved swiftly thereafter by summoning all the members of the House of Assembly to Lagos and took them later to Abuja after they signed an impeachment notice against the governor, notwithstanding that the new Speaker, Hon Ebebi had, few days earlier, shortly after the House confirmed Dr. Jonathan as Acting Governor, emphasized that the lawmakers had no plans to impeach the governor.
The returnee governor is certainly aware of the high hurdle ahead of him in this battle to retain his seat and escape justice in London. In his own words, Alams said: 'Nothing explains this better than the fact that members of the State House of Assembly were invited to Lagos by the EFCC under the pretext of investigating their constituency project allocations. Instead, they were compelled to endorse my impeachment from office in the full glare of camera, and made to address a press conference orchestrating my notice of impeachment.
'As I speak to you, the said notice of impeachment has not been served on me, in spite of what is being repeated in the media. The legislators involved in this show of shame have tendered the excuse that they are obliged to make the pronouncement in Lagos because Bayelsa is unsafe for them. Every discerning Bayelsan and the security agencies themselves will acknowledge that this is far from the truth. Instead, there is a plot to convey the said legislators to Yenagoa under tight security, and have them summarily announce my impeachment against all due process. To say the least, this is not in the best interest of democracy. Neither is it in our national interest. It is simply scandalous and unacceptable.
'I also have it on good authority that a phony letter of resignation purportedly signed by me is about to be given wide publicity. It is a mark of just how desperate my detractors want to hound me out of office. Let me state categorically that I have not resigned, and until I see a good reason to do so, I remain the chief executive of Bayelsa State.
'Needless to say, Bayelsa State is peaceful, and everyone is going about (his or her) business without molestation. At any rate, all of this adds up to my suspicion that there is a grand plan by the Federal Government to induce unrest in Bayelsa to give room for the declaration of a state of emergency", the governor told Bayelsa people in a broadcast, Wednesday evening.
But even as he struggles to talk himself out of trouble, doom still looms. Only on Thursday, the National Working Committee of PDP rose from a meeting in Abuja and recommended the dismissal from the party of Alams to the National Executive Committee. This decision came on the heels of another protest in Bayelsa by youths calling for the governor's removal.
Lawmakers relocate to Abuja
As at Wednesday, the lawmakers who signed the impeachment notice were said to have left the EFCC office in Lagos to an unknown location at Abuja on a predictable mission. Some top politicians from the state believed to be involved in the Alamieyeseigha-must-go plot left Yenagoa, Tuesday evening for Abuja. But the Speaker maintained, however, that their absence from Yenagoa was because their lives were no more safe.
Though, the governor said the state was safe, a top politician in the state this paper: 'I won't say it is right if truly the EFCC compelled the legislators to sign impeachment notice against the governor to save their own skins, but the lawmakers who said their lives are not safe in Yenagoa know what they are talking about. They know the governor very well. He is the one that financed the election of most of them and no serious politician in Bayelsa State would say that he does not know the capacity of Alams and those that work for him".
Who is in-charge?
Alamieyeseigha took charge of the state as soon as he stepped into Government House, Yenagoa on Tuesday. It is, however, being seriously contended by some persons that the acting governor, Dr. Jonathan did not hand over to him and since his 120 days leave have not expired, he should relax at home and enjoy his leave. In the alternative, they asked the governor to write to the Assembly informing the lawmakers as he did with his controversial 120-day leave letter that he has cut short his leave and would want to resume duty.
But this, many say, the governor would not do with the current face-off between him and the lawmakers. The legislators are being pressured not to recognize the presence of Alamieyeseigha in the state because he had not officially told them that he was back to the country. Moreover, Jonathan remains the acting governor of the state.
But what has the governor been doing since returning to Nigeria?
Why lawmakers want him impeached
Seventeen of the 24 members of the Bayelsa House of Assembly, in formally serving Alamieyeseigha an impeachment notice, chronicled the many impeachable offences of the governor. The legsilators charged:
'We, the undersigned Honourable members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly hereby give you NOTICE that His Excellency (Chief D.S. P. Alamieseigha (JP) is guilty fo gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office, which renders him liable to be impeached from office. Particulars of the various acts constituting the Gross misconduct are as follows:
•Involvement in money-laundering occasioning his arrest and investigation by officers of the Metropolitan Police, London, culminating in his current trial on charges of money-laundering in the United Kingdom with prospects of being convicted and sentenced to prison in the United Kingdom. This constitutes an unacceptable embarrassment to the people of Bayelsa state.
•Freedom of movement restricted to his home in United Kingdom far removed from his constituency, Bayelsa State of Nigeria with the result that he is incapable of discharging his constitutional functions as Governor of Bayelsa State, thus necessitating the appointment of his Deputy as Acting Governor by the State House of Assembly.
•Under investigation for grave and damaging allegations of fraudulent and corrupt self-enrichment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other appropriate security agencies in Nigeria.
•Maintaining foreign bank accounts while in office in the following banks viz: (i) Barclays Bank Plc, London (ii) National Westminster Bank, London (iii) Royal Bank of Scotland (iv) Commerce Bank, London contrary to the clear provisions of Paragraph 3 of the Fifth Schedule (Part 1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the provisions of which he swore an oath to uphold.
•Corrupt enrichment of his wife and children namely: Mr. Enetonbra Alamieseigha, Mr. Seleake Alamieseigha, and Miss Emeleakpo Alamieseigha as disclosed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in its report on investigations into allegations of criminal diversion of public funds by Chief D.S.P. Alamieseigha, Governor of Bayelsa State.
•Failing and refusing and/or neglecting to formally notify the Government of Bayelsa State particularly the Bayelsa State House of Assembly of his arrest, detention, arraignment and trial in court in London for the offence of money laundering but instead deceptively wrote to the Bayelsa State House of Assembly a letter obviously back-dated to the 1st day of September, 2005 requesting to be away for 120 days to enable him recuperate from a surgery he underwent in Germany, thus deliberately and mischievously attempting to keep away from the Government and people of Bayelsa state the fact of his arrest, detention and trial in London of money laundering charges, a fact that is now household knowledge all over the world.
•Criminal diversion and misappropriation of public funds to facilitate his acquisition of (a) one billion Naira shares in Bond Bank Plc by private placement. (b) Purchase of Chelsea Hotel, Abuja for the sum of two billion (c) Acquisition of £10 million worth of properties in London.
•Making false statement in his declaration of Assets and Liabilities as the Governor of Bayelsa State to the Code of Conduct Bureau in breach of the provisions of paragraph 11(2) of the fifth schedule (part 1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. Enclosed herewith and marked as Annexure BYHA 1 is a copy of the report and/or findings of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on investigations into allegations of criminal diversion and misappropriation of public funds against Chief D.S.P. Alamieseigha (JP), Governor of Bayelsa State.
•We hereby adopt the findings therein as particulars of the acts of gross misconduct we have alleged in the Notice of Impeachment. We trust that you will take appropriate action on this matter in accordance with the provisions of Section 188 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
Day 1 in office, November 21:
On his first day in office, Monday, the governor addressed the people of Bayelsa who followed him from his home town to Government House and also played host to Dr. Jonathan as well as the first civilian governor of the old Rivers state, Chief Melford Okilo, a group of traditional rulers led by HRM King Joshua Igbagara and the first military governor of the old Rivers state, HRM King Alfred Diete-Spiff. Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark was said to have come in from his village to see the governor.
Saturday Vanguard was told that the high-ranking visitors urged the governor during their separate visits not to take any hasty decision and to try as much as possible to reconcile all the warring factions so as not to heighten the tension in the state.
Day 2, November 22:
The governor who for now sleeps at his Amassoma country home came to the office and decided to inspect some of the offices in Government House. One of the workers who saw the governor as he opened the door during his inspection ran back to tell others that 'I saw the governor, I saw the governor, he is going round the offices."
Later in the day, the governor addressed members of the Ijaw Republican Assembly (IRA), led by Chief Charles Harry who paid him a solidarity visit at the Government House. He told them that he did not want anybody to sympathize with him but to realize that he was being persecuted because of his convictions and stand on resource control, true federalism and Ijaw cause.
Day 3, November 23:
The governor presided over the first meeting of the State Executive Council, which was curiously not attended by his deputy, Jonathan. He also made a broadcast that evening to the people of the state, telling them about his ordeal in Britain, the purported impeachment notice against him by the House of Assembly, the arrest and detention of the accountant-general of the state and summoning of others, all in a bid, he said, to cripple the state financially.
He alerted them of an orchestrated plan by the Federal Government to induce events that could lead to the declaration of a state of emergency in Bayelsa and commended the people for not giving the powers that be the opportunity to achieve their desire.
DSP's return divides leaders
Before DSP Alamieyeseigha returned to the country, some leaders in the state had been enlisted in the scheme to oust him. However, Alamieyeseigha's men infiltrated the camp and the people were not able to formidably rally the entire elders to move against the governor. One of the elders who visited Alamieyeseigha in London told the meeting about his encounter with the governor and his advice to him to resign from office to avoid the shame of being impeached. A source at the meeting told newsmen that the elders, indeed, resolved to send a delegation to Alamieyeseigha in London to ask him to quit office.
But the National Vice Chairman of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in South-South, Chief Douglas Naingba who attended the meeting told these reporters that no decision like that was taken at the meeting. Already, some of the elders who took opposing stand against Alamieyeseigha at the meeting have gone into hiding since the governor suddenly returned.
Pro and anti-Alamieyeseigha demonstrations
Yenagoa, the state capital witnessed several demonstrations, Tuesday, for and against the governor. The IRA and National Association of Ijaw Female Students formed the bulwark of the pro-Alamieyeseigha demonstrators. They besieged Government House after the siege the previous day by a sizeable crowd when the governor returned.
One thing that characterized the two demonstrations, Tuesday, was the discovery that the demonstrators were hired to perform whatever they did. One of the boys who protested against the governor told this paper that he was paid N3, 000 while another pro-Alamieyeseigha protester was heard complaining that those who recruited them had short-changed them.
Rift with deputy
The last thing anybody expected from Bayelsa at this trying time is a rift between the governor and his deputy. Dr. Jonathan Goodluck. Alams says that his deputy remains loyal but somehow, some persons have done everything to ensure that he was not carried along since the governor returned. These people claimed that the deputy was the one who instigated some elders to call for the governor's resignation and that he was part of the plan by the House of Assembly to make him Acting Governor.
But a source close to Jonathan denied the allegation, saying that 'he told the lawmakers that he was not fighting to take over the job of his boss" but the House of Assembly said what it did was in the interest of good governance in the state.
Jonathan shunned a meeting of the State Executive Council (EXCO), Wednesday and did not come to work a day after the governor's return because according to reliable sources, 'he was being marginalized." The governor had to visit his deputy at his Otuoke village after sending and waiting for him in the office without success.
At the deputy's governor's village, Alamco was said to have run into an ambush by his deputy's kinsmen who were unhappy that the governor was treating their son in such a manner after he held forte for him and refused to join his detractors. Some aides of the governor fired some gunshots to scare away the youths who mounted the blockade. Finally, things seemed to have been sorted out when Goodluck followed his boss to the Government House, Tuesday evening.
But on Wednesday, Jonathan stayed away from the executive council meeting. Saturday Vanguard was reliably told that it was while the meeting was on that a circular inviting him to the meeting was sent to him. Nonetheless, Alamieyeseigha, in his public utterances, has continued to maintain that his deputy is loyal. The deputy governor was surprised that he was being shielded from the activities of the governor by some persons in government and instead of constituting a nuisance in their midst, he was said to have preferred to stay away.
It was said that the governor had actually gone to Otuoke to get Jonathan to sign some cheques since the banks did not honour some of the ones he signed. A source said a federal government's agency is networking with the banks and there is a standing instruction on cheques signed by Alamieyeseigha. It was learnt that the deputy governor declined to sign the cheques but all the same he agreed to go with his boss to the office to sort out some few other things and did not leave Government House until 9.00pm.
Red alert as troops are deployed to Bayelsa...
By Wednesday, ten military boats of Operation Restore Hope in Warri were deployed to Amabulou community in Bayelsa in what observers say may be final crackdown on dissidents, even as the governor's loyalists say the troops are being stationed in the final push 'to get Governor Alamieyeseigha out of power by all means." They contend that the troops are to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order when the lawmakers return to Yenagoa to begin the impeachment process. For now, policemen are guarding the Assembly complex. However, there is also the thinking that the troops are being drafted to checkmate armed cultists who have been on rampage in the area for sometime now.
There has been massive apprehension as residents are all on red alert, no thanks to the presence of the war boats in Amabulou and the the presence of detachments of heavily-armed mobile policemen from Imo and Anambra States in Bayelsa. The tension, at the moment, is indescribable.
Thus, the Ijaw Youths Council in a communique issued after a meeting in Yenagoa called on the Federal Government not to do anything that may lead to anarchy. Saying that h e would not rule the withdrawal of his security the way the authorities did to the Anambra state governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, a large number of Ijaw youth had since volunteered to protect him. And up till Thursday, they were going about with him from his Amasssoma hometown to the Government House.
The only time the governor is out the sight of the fierce-looking youths is when he enters into his bedroom and inside his office. In any other place for now, their eagle eyes are upon him. But that notwithstanding, the streets of Yenagoa, the state capital, was for the second time in two days invaded by protesting Ijaw youths calling on the state governor to return to London where he is facing a three-count charge of money laundering. The youths, armed with placards of various shapes and sizes cataloguing what they described as the failure of the Alamieyeseigha administration noted with regret that in spite of the volume of revenue that has accrued to the state in the last six years, the residents cannot boast of pipe borne water even though they are surrounded by water. They lamented that six years into the Alamieyeseigha administration, no audited account of the state has been published in spite of the governor's promise to do so.
Inside story of how Alamiyeseigha lost hold of Bayelsa Assembly, party
ALL was well between Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa state, the party leadership and House of Assembly in the state until recently when it appeared as things started to fall apart. In fact, it was as if those bent on removing the governor from office were wasting their time until recently.
Now, the saying that if somebody is being pursued from outside, he runs home to his kinsmen to seek refuge is in the reverse in the 'Glory of all Land". Presently, it seems as if the Bayelsa PDP and the House of Assembly are not providing shelter for the governor. Why and how did things degenerate to such level?
For those who have been following the trend of events in the predominantly riverine oil and gas rich Bayelsa, DSP Alamieyeseigha has been embroiled in one controversy or the other since the inception of his administration in 1999. First was his emergence as the Peoples Democratic Party flag bearer in the controversial primaries in 1999, against the Nembe-born career civil servant- turned politician, Ambassador Emmanuel Otiotio.
This was at a time Ijaw nationalism was flowing through the length and breath of the Ijaw nation following the famous Kaiama Declaration leading to a near state of anarchy in Bayelsa, often regarded as the traditional headquarters of the Ijaw nation. The rancorous development resulted in a situation where elections were held in other parts of the country but that of Bayelsa was postponed. The All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in spite of recording an overwhelming feat at the polls, which was eventually conducted, was said to have been denied its mandate because of the fear that with the entire South-South in control of the PDP, it would be suicidal to allow a strategic state like Bayelsa State to be controlled by an opposition party.
Angered by what it perceived as injustice, the opposition party headed to court seek redress. Chains of events that were to later shape the destiny of the state started to unfold as the governor was fought to a standstill in court by the opposition. This was also the period the state was passing through a trying moment following the killing of 12 policemen by irate Ijaw youths with the Federal Government threatening to a declare state of emergency that eventually culminated in the invasion and destruction of Odi town by federal troops.
And while the Bayelsa people were gradually trying to put behind them the tragic Odi debacle, the state was again locked in fresh crisis when the cozy relationship between the governor and State House of Assembly under the leadership of Hon. Heineken Lokpobiri suddenly snapped with the latter serving the governor a notice of impeachment over alleged financial impropriety and gross misconduct. Bayelsa was again on the throes of anarchy. It took sundry efforts by the governor and interventions by highly-placed persons to weather the storm.
So, the latest impeachment notice on the governor is not his first. A dangerous dimension was introduced in the ensuing face-off between the house and executive in DSP's first term when a mysterious bomb was detonated at the assembly complex leaving in its trail the destruction of the accounts section of the complex. Ironically the Speaker, Lokpobiri, then a thorn in Alamieyeseigha's flesh was accused by the government of masterminding the blast even before the police commenced investigation into the cause of the deafening explosion, thereby breaking ranks of members and the subsequent impeachment and expulsion of the Speaker and his close allies from the PDP. The party, however, rescinded the decision later.
With Lokpobiri out of the way, Hon Peremobowei Ebebi who is today in the forefront of the Alamieyeseigha-must-go campaign was to become the beneficiary of the failed plot to oust the governor from office in 2001. The question that today bothers the mind of most watchers of events in the state is what could have made Ebebi suddenly turn his back on the governor with whom he had a father-son relationship in the last dispensation?
It was reliably gathered that the governor's attitude towards issues might be partly responsible for most of his travails. According to sources, Chief Alamieyeseigha sees everything around him as something that could be bought. He does not take time to court personal relationship with his party executives with the result that they turned their attention to somebody who was willing to listen to their problems and also the problems of the party. The source told Saturday Vanguard that this was responsible for his losing his grip on the party to Mr. Timi Alaibe, the Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the run-up to the 2003 elections. Alamieyeseigha, the source also said, surrounded himself with sycophants who are only interested in getting their share of the state resources without telling him to make amends where necessary. The events of the last two months clearly show that these are certainly very unfriendly times for the self-acclaimed governor-general of the Ijaw nation.
It is a known fact that the arrest of the governor over money laundering charges, September 15, has forced a re-ordering of priorities in the oil-rich and volatile state. Although the governor has since made a surprise re-appearance in the state, it is obvious that things cannot be said to be the same again as he appears to have lost grip of the party organ. Alamieyeseigha's problem with the party was said to have started way back in the build-up to the 2003 governorship elections. Impeccable sources revealed that though the governor, by virtue of his position, was the leader of the party in the state and as such should have played a fatherly role to all, instead was far removed from the party, thereby creating a wide gulf between himself and the party with the result that a more accommodating Alaibe succeeded in hijacking the party machinery from him.
Indications that there was a crack within the PDP family became public knowledge when the party executive boycotted a dinner invitation from the governor at Government House in 2003. Members of the executive were said to have staged a walk-out on the governor with a resolve to resist his second term ambition. He was saved by the decision of the party to adopt all their incumbent governors for a second term. The grouse of the party chieftains was that the governor was deliberately marginalizing the state executive in the scheme of things and was also starving the party of funds.
The face-off was carried over to the party primaries with a large number of members of the group routing for Alaibe. Although the governor subsequently won the ticket for the polls, but the former's ascension in the political arena almost scuttled his chance and it took the intervention of the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar before the two gladiators were reconciled in the interest of the party. Fate was again to play a cruel joke on the governor who after overcoming the shock of the 2003 saga in which the entire elite of the state teamed up to contest his continued stay in office, had thought of consolidating his grip on the party machinery ahead of the 2007 project only to get himself entangled in London at the time the party revalidation/re-registration exercise was taking place, thereby depriving him the opportunity of even being a card-carrying member as at date.
Interestingly, two dominant camps were to emerge in the state at the end of the exercise with the Alamco cartel crumbling like a pack of card in the heat of the EFCC invasion of the state. Attempts by the deputy governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to rally support for the governor after the EFCC invasion flopped as. It was against the background of the governor losing his grip of the party organ that the State Working Committee was able to summon the courage to effect his suspension from the party for 30 days at a meeting penultimate Thursday.
'In exercising its powers under article 16(b) of the party constitution, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, be and is hereby suspended from the party for a period of one month," the party chairman, Hon Fred Agbedi said in a communiquéé. The party noted that it took the decision after deliberations on the grave charges of money laundering preferred against him. It also deliberated and considered the several criminal allegations of embezzlement, fraud and corruption levelled against the governor by the relevant security agencies in Nigeria and described as unpardonable the failure of the governor to formally inform the state of his prolonged absence from both his party and official duties as an elected officer.
Even as the governor made a dramatic appearance in Yenagoa on Monday, the party insisted that his suspension stands. Chairman of the party, Hon Agbedi who spoke to Saturday Vanguard said the governor by his action of jumping bail had not only brought shame to his office but also disrepute and embarrassment to the party and state. From all indications, it is clear that the governor does not need to consult a fortune-teller to know that he, indeed, has formidable foes to contend with in the days ahead as the leadership of the State Assembly and the party are said to be working together to get him of out of office. And except a miracle happens, the expectation in the next few days is that the lawmakers would be chauffeur-driven to Yenagoa to impeach the governor. Alamieyeseigha who financed the election of most of the lawmakers was an untouchable but while he was away, a lot of water had passed under the bridge for obvious reasons.