Dickson confirms being grilled by EFCC

*Describes petition against him as frivolous

*Says he acquired family assets with loans before becoming Bayelsa Gov

By Deji Elumoye

The immediate past Governor of Bayelsa state, Senator Seriake Dickson, has confirmed that he was grilled by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over a petition written against him over alleged diversion of N17.5 billion flood funds in 2012.

The Senator representing Bayelsa West, who said he honoured EFCC’s invitation on Tuesday, however described as frivolous the petition saying he had long acquired family assets in three different parts of the country and the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2012 long before becoming Governor.

In a release issued on Tuesday evening after being released on self recognition by the anti-graft agency, the ranking Senator stated that the EFCC inquiry relates to investments of his family trust, “which I incorporated while being a member of the House of Representatives to hold my family assets and investments which were made between 1996 and 2012 before I became Governor”.

He said: “I understand that there is a petition from an NGO alleging that these investments (largely buildings, plots, farms, etc in my village, Orua, Yenagoa, and two buy-to-let houses in the UK) were not declared. I have a duty to clarify these issues with the investigating authorities who by law have the responsibility to inquire into these matters.

“However, for the avoidance of doubts, let me state that my family investments, Seriake Dickson Trust Incorporated were made between 1996 and 2012 before I became Governor. These investments were funded by loans and advances and repaid from salaries, allowances, savings and others. One of them is still on mortgage and I have made these documents available to the EFCC.”

He further submitted that the aforementioned investments were declared in his assets declaration form at the House of Representatives in 2011; Governorship form in 2012, 2016, 2020 after he left office and the Senate Assets declaration form this year.

Dickson added that he went beyond the declarations and wrote several letters to the appropriate agencies, copies of which had since been made available to the EFCC.

His words: “My trust and I subscribed to the federal government Voluntary Assets Income AND Declaration Scheme (VAIDES) and also paid the necessary taxes. As a result of blackmail from some quarters, the Trust and I went to the Federal High Court where there is a subsisting judgement declaring that no Nigerian law is breached by a public officer who takes loans and other verifiable avenues to make investments for his family provided these are declared.

“It should be on record that I have since resigned from the Trust Administration since 2011 before I became Governor. My solicitors and those of the trust have written to the EFCC to clarify these issues with the accompanying documents”.

The lawmaker said he was presented with another allegation of diversion of flood funds to the tune ofN17.5 billion when he got to the EFCC office on Tuesday.

According to him: “The investigating team came up with a new allegation of diversion of flood funds in 2012 totaling N17.5 billion. The petition further alleged that the money was used for my re-election in 2019. The fact is that there was no such donation about the 2012 flood in Bayelsa.

‘Curiously, there was no mention of donor or where the money came from. There was also no re-election for governorship in Bayelsa in 2019 which are clear proofs that the petition was totally frivolous.
“The commission after looking into these allegations have since asked me to return home on self recognition”.