The United States and the Federal Government have signed an agreement for the repatriation of $954,000 loot of late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelsa State Governor. This was signed through the country’s Nigeria’s representative Mary Beth Leonard, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, at a press briefing on Thursday, February 16th 2023, in Abuja.
The Ambassador said the official salary of the former governor during his tenure as a public servant from 1999 to his impeachment in 2005 did not match the said amount that was returned.
“However, during that time, he accumulated millions of dollars through abuse of office, money laundering,” Alamieyeseigha died in October 2015 at the age of 62.
President Muhammadu Buhari has however directed that the said amount be utilised in developing Bayelsa state healthcare.
Alamieyeseigha was impeached on allegations of corruption on 9 December 2005 and Goodluck Jonathan, his deputy at the time, took over.
On July 26, 2007, Alamieyeseigha pleaded guilty before a Nigerian court to six charges and was sentenced to two years in prison on each charge; however, because the sentences were set to run concurrently and the time was counted from the point of his arrest nearly two years before the sentences, his actual sentence was relatively short.
Jonathan later granted him pardon, a move that triggered backlash.
Story: Christy Dung
