Ready to Launch campaign for Senator of Bayelsa 2015
ROCKVILLE MARYLAND PROPERTY BECOMES THAT OF U.S GOVT
One reason why Nigerians would find it hard to objectively consider what the president claimed on Democracy Day to be achievements in the administration’s ‘fight’ against corruption is the fact that while the United States is still investigating Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the ex-convict and ex-governor of Bayelsa, and while he still remains a fugitive from justice in the United Kingdom, the president has already granted him a presidential pardon.
One reason why Nigerians would find it hard to objectively consider what the president claimed on Democracy Day to be achievements in the administration’s ‘fight’ against corruption is the fact that while the United States is still investigating Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the ex-convict and ex-governor of Bayelsa, and while he still remains a fugitive from justice in the United Kingdom, the president has already granted him a presidential pardon.
That was a blow to the fight against corruption, which no amount of explanation and in some cases abuses by presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, would be able to expunge.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a $700,000 (N112 million) home owned by Alamieyeseigha in the United States of America, has been forfeited to the government of America following the approval by a federal judge of the Justice Department’s forfeiture order.
The house, located in Maryland, was part of Alamieyeseigha’s assets which the US Justice Department insists are proceeds of corruption. The judge, Roger W. Titus granted the Justice Department’s motion for default judgement against the property.
The seized house is owned by Solomon & Peters Ltd., a shell company controlled by Alamieyeseigha, according to court papers. According to the Justice Department, Alamieyeseigha offered drastically different accounts of how the house came to be in his possession.
In Alamieyeseigha’s court filings, he lashed at the authorities. “I am not unaware of the monkey politics that is played in third world countries like Nigeria with the active connivance of over zealous individuals, agencies and government parastals (sic) touting themselves as global ethics compliance monitors,” he wrote in a 2011 affidavit. “The civil forfeiture action which was brought against the defendant property in a quest to score cheap points as the global watchdog should be dismissed.”
It is unclear whether the forfeited cash would be returned to Nigeria.
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