Imprisonment: How Obasanjo, Ribadu framed me up – DSP Alamieyeseigha

Obasanjo and Alamieyeseigha

His story evokes emotions as he told it. He sat on his sofa in his large sitting room telling it. For the first time since he was impeached in December 2005, subsequently incarcerated, freed and finally granted a state pardon by President Goodluck Jonathan on March 12, 2013, he has not told the story of his travails.

But in this meeting with a Vanguard team of two last week after several unfruitful attempts in the last four months, the former governor of Bayelsa State and Governor-General of Ijaw Nation in the Niger delta, Chief  Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, popularly called DSP opened up in a manner that will stun anyone who is familiar with his ordeals. For instance, there is this widely held impression that he returned to Nigeria during those trying days disguised as a woman and that he embezzled billions of Naira.
But here, Alamaesigha, who is also a delegate at the on-going National Conference said all were blatant lies against him. He fingered former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the mastermind of his dilemma.
He also, did not spare the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Malam Nuhu Ribadu. But on a more humane note, Alamaesigha said that late former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was his man Friday who saved him from the pangs of death.  

Excerpt:
His take on the National Conference
The conference has been very eventful and educative. Quite frankly, one is more appreciative of the country-Nigeria.

Clearly, what I personally observed is that we do not know this country very well. People placed in position of responsibility must take time out to go round this country. They must know the geography of this country so that when people are talking about desertification, they will understand. When we are talking about gully erosion, people will understand. When we talk of environmental degradation as a result of oil exploration and exploitation, they will understand. When people say, they can’t have drinking water, they will understand because it is polluted.
When peoples’ livelihood is destroyed, you will understand. When people talk about ocean surge, they will understand because when you talk about onshore/offshore, unless you ask people like us whose platforms that were once on land are right now in the deep sea. They have been eaten off by the ocean. Bayelsa state has the longest coast line, 203 kilometers open to the Atlantic, all the villages around the bank of the Atlantic Ocean, most of them have been wiped out.
You hear of Kolama 1, Kolama 2. When you hear 2, that means 1 has been wiped out. When we tell people that every two years, you have to change the roof of your house because of acid rain, you will not appreciate. To construct one kilometer of road is about a billion Naira in the typical Niger Delta, we are not talking of political Niger Delta. This oil we are getting; the money we are sharing from this oil is in the swamps. So, it is important we educate ourselves the more.
Read the rest of the interview here ;http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/imprisonment-obasanjo-ribadu-framed-dsp-alamieyeseigha/