Nigerian police on Friday arrested the governor of an oil-rich state who has been charged with money-laundering by a British court, officials said.
Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha skipped bail in London last month and escaped home to Bayelsa state in southern Nigeria’s unruly Niger Delta, where his arrival triggered a political crisis.
Two hundred armed police descended on his office in Government House in Yenagoa, the state capital, early on Friday and detained him, said state information commissioner Oronto Douglas.
”Yes, Alamieyeseigha has been arrested,” President Olusegun Obasanjo’s spokesperson, Remi Oyo, said by telephone from the federal capital, Abuja.
State television showed footage of Alamieyeseigha arriving at police headquarters in Abuja by helicopter and being led into the building in handcuffs.
The arrest followed an early-morning vote by state lawmakers to impeach the governor and thus strip him of his immunity from prosecution, assembly speaker Peremobowei Ebebi said.
The legislators were brought to the assembly under a military escort, said Douglas.
Alamieyeseigha fled London on November 20 after he was charged with handling £1,8-million in embezzled public funds.
He made a surprise return to Bayelsa, reportedly disguised as a woman and carrying a forged passport, only to find that his deputy had been named acting governor by local lawmakers.
His escape from British justice enraged Obasanjo, whose federal agents had been cooperating with Scotland Yard to prosecute the governor, and troops were deployed to Yenagoa.
Alamieyeseigha will be questioned by agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
”The man has several cases against him,” said EFCC spokesperson Osita Nwajah.
Last month, the Bayelsa state assembly ordered a panel of seven judges to investigate the charges against Alamieyeseigha.
The panel began work on Tuesday and took just 72 hours to confirm the governor had a case to answer. The assembly vote endorsed this and cleared the way for impeachment hearings.
In a letter made public on Friday, Alamieyeseigha accused the assembly of stuffing the panel with his political enemies and demanded to be allowed to appear before it to clear his name.
”Even if I am to be crucified, I should be heard and be given the opportunity to do so. I want to state clearly that I am prepared to face the panel and defend myself,” he declared.
Alamieyeseigha’s supporters claim he has only been targeted because of his support for rivals to Obasanjo.
According to the EFCC’s report into Alamieyeseigha’s finances, the governor owns a string of multimillion-dollar properties bought through front companies in London, California and Cape Town.
Bayelsa is one of the richest states in Nigeria and receives about $60-million a month in revenue from oil production, but most of its two million residents live in abject poverty.
Despite this, the governor has retained some allies among the 12-million-strong Ijaw ethnic group, whose demands for a greater share of the country’s oil profits he has championed.
Some armed youths drawn from the various Ijaw militias roaming the creeks of the Niger Delta have rallied to his cause, although there was no resistance to Friday’s arrest.
It was not immediately clear whether Nigeria intends to prosecute Alamieyeseigha under its own laws, or to extradite him to Britain, where a court has issued a warrant for his arrest.
”It is a United Kingdom warrant, not an international warrant. I’m not aware of any move to seek his extradition,” a spokesperson for the British high commission said.
A second Nigerian governor, Joshua Dariye of Plateau state, also has an outstanding warrant against him in London after he skipped police bail while under investigation for money-laundering.
The government is seeking his impeachment. — Sapa-AFP