It has been revealed that the government of Bayelsa State received more than £5 million as money recovered from the funds stolen by former State Governor Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha.
The fund, according to Nigeria’s retiring High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK) Dr. Dalhatu Tafida was handed back to the state government in 2012, barely a year after incumbent governor Seriake Dickson took over.
Tafida broke the news at the at the weekend in Birmingham where he spoke with the Nigerian community on the amount of stolen funds received from the UK by the Federal Government through its High Commission in London.
Tafida’s visit to Birmingham was part of a thank-you-tour as his tenure ends on August 15, after an eight-year stint as Nigeria’s chief envoy in the UK.
He had earlier visited Manchester, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle and Belfast.
According to Tafida, the £5 million was received from the British authorities and handed over to two government officials from Bayelsa State, who came to London for the transfer.
He told his audience that the money was lodged a Bayelsa State government account with the London branch of First Bank Plc.
Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached, tried and convicted, got a presidential pardon in March 2013 – courtesy of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Alamieyeseigha was arrested at Heathrow Airport in September 2005 by the Metropolitan Police and initially remanded but later granted bail.
In breach of his bail requirements, he left the UK and returned to Nigeria in 2005.
He entered a plea bargain in a Federal High Court after being convicted on six counts of making false declaration of assets.
Part of the money recovered, according to the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank, consisted of $1.5 million in cash, seized at the time of arrest and $2.7 million held in bank accounts (Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, Santolina Investment Corporation account in excess of GBP 1.8 million) and London real estate worth $15 million (four properties registered under Solomon & Peters Ltd. as sole proprietor).
In May 2006, a London court ordered the confiscation of the seized cash pursuant to the Proceeds of Crime Act, after Alamieyeseigha skipped bail and returned to Nigeria; bank accounts and London real estate were confiscated pursuant to a December 2007 United Kingdom High Court summary judgment; and a July 2008 judgment left to confiscation of remaining assets in the United Kingdom, Denmark and Cyprus.
Pursuant to his July 2007 plea in Nigerian High Court, he was sentenced to a two-year prison term and his assets in Nigeria were ordered seized.
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