Hundreds of Nigerian troops deployed on Monday to the capital of the country’s biggest oil producing region after militant youths rallied around a state governor accused of embezzling millions of dollars, the military said.
”We have troops deployed in Yenagoa. They went in this morning. Their numbers are in the hundreds,” Major Said Hamed, spokesperson for a joint military task force set up to protect Nigeria’s massive oil industry, told Agence France Presse by telephone from the region.
Yenagoa is the capital of Bayelsa State and the headquarters of Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who last week skipped bail in Britain to escape money-laundering charges and escaped to Nigeria, where he enjoys immunity from prosecution.
His flight angered President Olusegun Obasanjo and, with the governor now facing a threat of impeachment by Bayelsa lawmakers, he has reportedly surrounded himself with armed supporters drawn from the ethnic Ijaw militant groups which operate in the wetlands of the Niger Delta.
”Some of the youths protect the governor and some others are against him. They are on both sides. Some are known to be dressed in military uniforms. Our own troops are now there and they will soon get the information they need about those in uniform,” Hamed said.
Bayelsa is the heartland of Nigeria’s oil industry, which is the world’s biggest exporter of crude and produces more than 2,5-million barrels per day.
But, despite accounting for more than a quarter of production and receiving more oil revenue than any other state, Alamieyeseigha’s domain and its two million citizens remain mired in poverty.
The governor was arrested in London in September by Scotland Yard detectives working on information from Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He was charged with three counts money laundering after £1,8-million ($3,2-million) was found in his London home and two British bank accounts.
But before he could face trial he skipped bail, disguised himself as a woman and used a false passport to flee home to Nigeria, according to the EFCC.
As an elected governor he cannot be charged here with a criminal offence, but members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly have launched impeachment proceedings against him. – AFP
