By Yusuph Olaniyonu, Moses Jolayemi in Lagos and John Iwori in Yenegoa, 09.27.2005

Money Laundering

Alamieyeseigha's lawyers led by Barrister Fidelis Odittah, a Queens Counsel and Senior Advocate of Nigeria had yesterday got a ruling of the Redbridge Magistrate Court in London declaring that the police had no powers to attach conditions to the bail granted the governor after his arrest at the Heathrow Airport on his way from Germany.
A two-paragraph statement from London Metropolitan Police emailed to THISDAY yesterday showed that Alamieye-seigha, a resident of Water Gardens W2 in London, will today be arraigned at Bow Street Magistrate Court on a three-count charge of money laundering.
He will be charged with two counts of acting contrary to Section 93C(1) of the Criminal Justice Act of 1988 for being in possession of £420,000 and another £475,000.
Also, the governor will be charged with yet another one count of money laundering totalling £920,000 contrary to Section 327(1) of Proceeds of Crime Act 2000.
He was yesterday re-arrested by the police.
The application filed yesterday by Alamieyeseigha's counsel was meant to nullify the condition which required him to submit his travel documents and report everyday to the Desk Officer at the Ilford Police station in London
"The condition technically kept Alamieseigha in London and ensured he could not travel out of the country (UK). The design was to prevent a situation like that of Plateau state Governor Joshua Dariye who when he was released on bail for the same offence as Alamieseigha returned to Nigeria and has refused to report back to the police," a source in London said.
But Odittah and other counsel, Damola Aderemi, a barrister and Tayo Arowojolu, a solicitor and chairman of Society of Nigerian Lawyers in the UK contended before the magistrate that the police did not have the powers to attach condition to Alamieseigha's' bail and thus , the bail condition is unlawful.
THISDAY gathered that at yesterday's hearing of the application , the counsel representing the London Police also agreed that the police ought not to attach condition to the bail as they were still investigating the money laundering allegations.
The magistrate therefore ruled that the bail condition was unlawful and therefore null and void
But the police sensing that on the strength of the ruling Alamieseigha may return to Nigeria since he would have to retrieve his travel documents before the November 15 date, when the police had planned to formally charge him to court accosted him outside the premises of the Redbridge Magistrate court and rearrested him.
The police said he was rearrested based on fresh evidence , the only true ground on which such action could be taken.
Today's arraignment may therefore be a move in form of a holden charge which will enable the police secure a court order to detain the governor.
But a source close to Alamieseigha’s legal team told THISDAY that when the police rearrested the governor, they had no fresh evidence. '" It was while they took him to the station and kept him there that the police went again to conduct a fresh search in his home, in his absence. Nobody knew what they took away but they must have taken away some documents. Those documents are what they would say are their fresh evidence on which basis the governor's rearrest could be lawfully based" the source said.
"Why did they wait until today when the magistrate said they had no power to impose conditional bail before they are now claiming they have fresh evidence against him? The man has been reporting on a daily basis to the police station and they never raised the issue of fresh evidence. We will call this persecution, abuse of powers and trampling on the sovereignty of Nigeria by holding him. Surprisingly, the federal Government is assisting them in doing so," he added.
Alamieseigha was on September 15 arrested by officers from the Specialist and Economic Crime Unit of the London Metropolitan Police at London Heathrow on his way from Germany where he had gone for surgery. From the airport where he was arrested, he was led to his London home in Water Gardens W2 for a search which reportedly yielded the discovery of £1 million cash.
The governor claimed that his ordeal was masterminded by his detractors back home in Abuja. But the British High Commissioner to Nigeria Mr. Richard Grozney said the arrest was the fallout of a request two years ago by Nigeria seeking the assistance of the British Government in the war against money laundering.
" The police will let matters take their course in London. They (Alamieseighas supporters back home) can be assured that the governor is under no special persecution or anything like that. The Police investigation that led to his questioning was entirely routine and normal," he had said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of Bayelsa State Government, Mr Preye Wariowei, yesterday in Yenagoa stated that consular services have still not been extended to Alamieyeseigha in London as promised by President Olusegun Obasanjo when elders, traditional rulers and opinion leaders of the state led by Deputy Governor Goodluck Jonathan visited the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Wariowei stated that it was puzzling that the governor was yet to get the consular protection since the promise was made last Thursday in Abuja.
“Our thinking was that even if Chief Alamieyeseigha were to be an ordinary Nigerian citizen enmeshed in a crisis of this nature, he would still have been entitled to those services”, Wariowei who is acting chief press secretary to the governor stated.
He said that it was a slap on the sovereignty of Nigeria for the governor to be denied consular services, and deplored misleading reports on the governor’s travails in London.
“For over a week now, especially since September 15, 2005, we have been battling with a terrible crisis to the effect that the State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeigha, was unlawfully arrested by the London Metropolitan Police and interrogated on allegations of money laundering. He was released without charge the following day.
“Between then and now, so much of that illegality has been published by a cross section of the media with a bias which springs mainly from a lack of understanding of the issues involved in the whole saga and also from the misleading belief that the allegations upon which the governor was humiliated in London have been proven,” he stated.
He, however, commended the people of the state for their “show of solidarity even at this trying moment and the philosophical calmness with which they have swallowed this bitter pill”, while urging them to remain peaceful.
Obasanjo had at a meeting with a delegation of Bayelsa State directed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Britain, Dr. Christopher Kolade, to ensure that full consular services were provided for Alamieyeseigha in London and added that the governor remains innocent until it is proved otherwise.