Posted by By YINKA FABOWALE on
Ailing Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha has denied sponsoring the on-going violence in the Niger Delta and suggestions that he was backing some aspirants for the governorship of Bayelsa State.
•Says they want to nail me at all costs
Ailing Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha has denied sponsoring the on-going violence in the Niger Delta and suggestions that he was backing some aspirants for the governorship of Bayelsa State.
The former Bayelsa State governor, currently facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged embezzlement and money-laundering, in a statement he issued from his hospital bed in Lagos, where he is being treated for cardiac complications, described the allegations as part of the desperate ploy of his traducers 'to nail" him at all costs.
Niger Delta militants responsible for the violence and hostage-taking in the region had often made the release of Alamieyeseigha and their detained leader, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo by the state a condition for cessation of their onslaught - a fact that may have given rise to the suspicion.
But the former governor faulted the logic, wondering how he could sponsor the violence 'trapped on a hospital bed with unresolved cardiac issues, denuded of resources and the capacity to be the master of my own destiny," and incapable of meeting his legal and medical bills.
Recalling that he had always been the chief promoter of peace and the arrowhead of interventions in the Niger Delta crisis which had yielded a six and a half years of armistice with the militants. Alamieyeseigha remarked that the situation today 'only places in bold relief the yeoman's job we did in office to guarantee peace."
He added: 'How many times did I personally intervene in hostage situations, and win victory for the cause of peace and progress. Can anyone quantify the tremendous personal sacrifice we had to make to ensure that the anger of the youths was reined in, to guarantee and sustain the peace we had for six and a half years?
'In the events that began on September 15 last year, leading up to my return home to a heroic welcome on November 21, why wasn't there widespread anarchy and violence?
A full arsenal of federal military might, made of a composite deployment of Army, Air force and Police troops, backed by tanks and artillery pieces, moved into Bayelsa to give effect to my controversial and illegal impeachment. If I were not a man of peace, was this not the time that maximum violence should have been of strategic value? Is it now that I have lost it all that I would resort to sponsoring violence?"
The embattled politicians said: 'These allegations would have been laughable if they weren't so grave. How can I be held responsible for the swirling anger of the people of the Niger Delta, which since the days of Isaac Boro has found expression in actions such as we see today? Were we not all witnesses to statements of a leader of one of the militant groups endorsing my impeachment and ensuing public flagellation? Sponsoring militants indeed!"
Alamieyeseigha said: 'In this valley where I temporarily find myself, and from which I fully hope to one day emerge, I am sickened to see the desperation to nail me at all costs."
He urged the people of Bayelsa State to pursue their destinies and ambitions within the confines of the law, reiterating that he has not endorsed any one for the gubernatorial race in the state. 'I have no inclination, nor am I in the position on this hospital bed, to do so. Where I am today, I remain alive only by the grace of God. For this, I am eternally grateful," he said.