CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA
IMPEACHMENT OF GOVERNOR PETER OBI
Prior to the
impeachment, there was factionalisation of the House of Assembly members
into two groups.
The pro and anti impeachment groups. The pro impeachment group was under
the control of
the speaker Mr. Mike Balonwu while the anti impeachment group was led by Mr.
Chuks Nwosu. The
group was made up of 15 and 13 members respectively. The pro
impeachment
group moved outside Anambra State to an hotel in Asaba, Delta State where they
compiled their
notice of allegations of misconduct against the governor. The notice claimed to
have been
purportedly served on the governor contains the following allegations:
1. Violation of
oath of office and constitutional obligations
2. Influenced
the placement of huge sum of money belonging to Anambra government in
Fidelity Bank
Plc, a bank the governor has an interest as the immediate past chairman.
3. Violation of
fifth schedule of the 1999 constitution by allowing his personal interest to
conflict with
official duties and responsibilities.
4. Award of
contract to his Kinsman Mr. Anthony Akpolo for the construction of the
business village
without due process.
5. Award of
contracts to his loyalists at a cost far exceeding the normal cost without due
process the
contract awarded to his campaign manager was particularly mentioned.[1]
6. Inability to
show concern for the victims of Onitsha crisis as a result of his shoot at
sight
order.
These
allegations were signed by 15 lawmakers and sent in the form of advertorial in
some selected
newspapers to governor Obi. A copy was also sent to the Anambra State Chief
Judge, Justice
Chuka Okoli to constitute seven man panel to investigate the allegations. The
Governor headed
for the court to challenge the legality of the process of his impeachment. An
high court in
Awka actually ruled against any attempt to remove the governor.
However, all the
attempts made by Obi to stop the impeachment failed as state Chief
Judge, Justice
Chuka Okoli set up a six man panel as against seven provided for in the
constitution.
The State Assembly too, defied judicial order to stop the impeachment process.
He
was consequently
removed by less than 2/3 members of the assembly. The governor later filed an
originating
summon at an Awka High Court to challenge his removal from office.
GOVERNOR PETER AYODELE FAYOSE’S
IMPEACHMENT
Ayodele
Fayose was the Governor of Ekiti State elected under the platform of PDP in 2003.
Before his removal from office, he had presided over the administration of the
state from 2003 to October 16th, 2006, when he was impeached by the
State’s lawmakers as allegations of corruption, abuse of office and gross
misconduct. Other allegations against the Governor include illegal operation of
foreign accounts; illegal diversion of local government funds; receipt of
illegal gifts; and illegal transfer of the sum of $100,000 to the United States[2].
The
Governor and his Deputy, Mrs Abiodun Olujimiwere served impeachment notices by
twenty-four of the state’s twenty-six lawmakers on October 3, 2006, following
allegations of gross misconduct against them by the EFCC. In a controversial
circumstance, two panels of investigation were set up in quick succession to
determine the fate of the Governor and his Deputy[3].
The
membership of the first panel constituted by the Chief Judge, Justice Kayode Bamishile
was believed to be the dominated by people of questionable character and
loyalists of the Governor the spirit of the Constitution under Section
188(5).Thus, the State House of Assembly disregarded the panel and instead
appointed Justice Jide Aladejana in Acting capacity as the Chief Judge. Justice
Aladejana constituted the second panel with the same term of reference.
Though the Governor and his Deputy were cleared of all the charges by
the first panel , when it was almost certain that the Governor might not have
the privilege of express clearance with the second panel, he failed to show up
or make representation at the panel sitting. However, his Deputy did, this
second panel found him culpable and decided to act accordingly.
In
the Ekiti impeachment crisis, the controversy that trailed the composition of
the first panel of enquiry, the decision of the State House of Assembly to
reject the panel’s report, which passed a no guilty verdict on Governor Fayose
and instead set up another panel also raise several legal conundrum. First, the
substantive Chief Judge, Kayode Bamishile argued that it was his discretionary
power to so continue the panel and that the Assembly lacked the power to vet
it. Consequently, an order by the legislature for the judge to appear before it
was ignored on the ground that the assembly was acting outside its
jurisdiction, for he was not accountable to the Assembly[4].
Justice Bamishile had described the legislators as jokers who should not
be taken seriously. The averred that the legislators needed to be educated on
the powers granted them by the Constitution, similarly, while the law makers
believed that they were still within the limits of the Constitution, the
Governor believed otherwise and close to describe the Assembly’s action as a
coup and a rape of democracy. Regardless of the raging controversies that
border on the legality of the process, the House voted to impeach Governor
Fayose and his Deputy, Abiodun Olujimi. The notion for impeachment was passed
with one legislator abstaining, one against and twenty two in support.
The legislators thereafter appointed
their Speaker, Friday Aderemi, as the acting Governor in line with Section 191
(1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, which gives the Speaker the power to act
in the absence of the Governor and his Deputy. He was to occupy the office for
three months prelude to fresh elections as provided for in the Constitution in
such circumstances.
In sharp contrast, however, on
October 19, 2006, President Obasanjo (now former President) in an early morning
broadcast declare a state of emergency in Ekiti State, appointing retired
Brigadier-General Tunji Olurin as the administrator of the state for six months
as provided under Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution. According to the
erstwhile President, this section became necessary in order to avoid a looming
danger and what he called possible breakdown of law and order. This was given
credence by the cross-claims of the estranged Deputy Governor, Mrs Abiodun Olujimi
and the former speaker, Friday Aderemi as Acting Governors, thus creating two parallel government, while laying claim to the
state security. While the former relied on the impeachment proceedings which
was fraught with irregularities and illegalities, the later justified his
action on the power granted to state House of Assembly
IMPEACMENT OF GOVERNOR JOSHUA DARIYE
On the 5 th day of October 2006 governor
Joshua Dariye was allegedly served withnotice of allegations of gross
misconductthereby initiating a process ofimpeachment by the remaining 10members
of that House. The notice ofallegations of gross misconduct wassigned by eight
(8) out of the ten existingmembers. Throughout the processes andproceedings
leading to and including theimpeachment of the governor, the Plateau State
House of Assembly hadonly ten members, eight (8) of whosupported and voted in
favour of the removal of the governor undersection 188 of the 1999
Constitution.The following are the summary ofallegations of gross misconduct
againstthe governor;-
"(a)
Money laundering and economiccrimes leading to the arrest anddetention of the
governor in theUnited Kingdom having been found withthe sum of #90,000.00 in
cash andlodgments in the banks.
(b)
Operation of at least 8 U.K. bankaccounts contrary to the provision of the5 th
schedule, part I, item 3 of the 1999Constitution.
(c)
Purchase of flat 28 Regeants Plaza Apartment, 8 Greville Road, LondonNW6,
through State funds contrary tothe provision of section 15 (5) of the1999
Constitution.
(d) False
declaration of assets contrary tothe code of conduct for public officers in the
5 th schedule, part I item II of the1999 Constitution.
(e) Jumping
bail in the United Kingdomfor which an international warrant ofarrest was
issued against the governor and was consequentlydeclared wanted.
(f) Payment
of Plateau State GovernmentEcological funds by the governor inthe sum of
N1,161,162,900.00 (Onebillion, one hundred and sixty-onemillion, one hundred
and sixty-twothousand, nine hundred naira only) andN 82,600,000.00 (Eighty-two
million, sixhundred thousand Naira only)respectively into his private account.
(g)
Disbursement of the State EcologicalFund of N1,161,162.900.00 (One billion,one
hundred and sixty-one million, onehundred and sixty-two thousand, ninehundred
naira only) as though it was hispersonal money in the followingmanner-
(i)
Pinnacle Communications N 250,000,000.00
(ii)
Plateau State Government N 550,000,000.00
(iii) Union
Homes N 80,000,000.00
(iv) PDP,
South West N 100,000,000.00
(v) Chief Joshua
Dariye N 176,000,000.00
(vi) C.O.P
N 4,300,000.00
(h)
Conversion of Plateau State funds inthe sum of N 82,600,000.00 (Eighty
twomillion, six hundred thousand nairaonly) to his private and personal use.
Following the cross carpeting of the said14 members of the House
including theSpeaker and the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Michael Dapianlong became the
new Speaker ofthe House and by a letter dated 5 the
October, 2006 invited the Chairman ofIndependent
National ElectoralCommission (INEC) to organize a by-election for the purpose
of filling thevacant seats. Hon . Michael Dapianlong subsequently requested the
Acting Chief Judge of Plateau State to set up a 7 man-Panel to investigate the
allegations ofgross misconduct against the governor which was done. The Panel
carried out theirassignment and submitted a report tothe Plateau State House of
Assemblywhich report was adopted by the House on the 13th day of November,
2006resulting in the removal of Joshua Dariye as the Governor of Plateau State.
IMPEACHMENT
DIEPREYE ALAMIEYESEIGHA
Governor of
Bayelsa State Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was elected Governor of Bayelsa State in
May 1999 as amember of the ruling People's DemocraticParty (PDP). He was
re-elected in 2003.
CORRUPTION CHARGES
UNITED KINGDOM
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was detained
in London on charges of money laundering inSeptember 2005. At the time of his
arrest,Metropolitan police found about £1m in cashin his London home. Later
they found a totalof £1.8m ($3.2m) in cash and bank accounts. He has been found
to own real estate inLondon worth an alleged £10million. His state's
monthlyfederal allocation for the last six years hasbeen in the order of £32million.
He jumped bail inDecember 2005 from the
United Kingdom byallegedly disguising himself as a woman, though Alamieyeseigha
denies this claim.
NIGERIA
On July 26, 2007, Alamieyeseigha pled
guilty before a Nigerian court to six charges andwas sentenced to two years in
prison on eachcharge; however, because the sentences wereset to run
concurrently and the time wascounted from the point of his arrest nearlytwo
years before the sentences, his actualsentence was relatively short. Many of
hisassets were ordered to be forfeited to the Bayelsa state government.
According to Alamieyeseigha, he only pled guilty due to hisage and would have
fought the charges hadhe been younger. On July 27, just hoursafter being taken to
prison, he was releaseddue to time already served. In April 2009,
Alamieyeseigha pledged a donation of 3,000,000 Naira to the Akassa Development
Foundation.In December 2009, the federal governmenthired a British law firm to
help dispose of four expensive properties acquired by Alamieyeseigha in London
.Alamieyeseighahad bought one of these properties for£1,750,000.00 in July
2003, paying in cash. Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha used it as his
London residence, and as theregistered office of Solomon and Peters Inc.
UNITED STATES
On June 28, 2012, the United States
(US)Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that it had executed an asset
forfeiture order on$401,931 in a Massachusetts brokerage fund,traceable to
Alamieyeseigha. US prosecutorsfiled court papers in April 2011 targeting
theMassachusetts brokerage fund and a $600,000Maryland home, which they alleged
were theproceeds of corruption. A motion for default judgement and civil
forfeiture was granted bya Massachusetts federal district judge in earlyJune
2012. The forfeiture order was the firstto be made under the DoJ’s fledgling Kleptocracy Asset Recovery
Initiative.
The impeachment plan against Alamieyeseigha commenced
amidst threats by Ijaws youth groups who vowed to halt it even with their own
blood. Because of the threats by Ijaws youths, the lawmaker relocated to a
secret place in Lagos where they commenced impeachment proceedings against the
Governor contrary to the Constitution that specified that such a sitting should
take place in the House of Assembly.
Against
this background, 20 out of the 24 members of the state House of Assembly signed
the impeachment notice against the Governor, Peremobower Ebebi, the new speaker
of the Bayelsa Sate House of Assembly who read the impeachment notice said that
the action was based on the act that a man who could disguise as a woman to run
away from London to Nigeria should not be a Governor. He also accused the Governor
of money laundering.
The impeachment
of Alamieyeseigha was first tracked when the Speaker Ebibi called for a voice
write to remove the Governor and no one objected in the House. The impeachment
was signed by 17 of the 24 members of the House. The Speaker then appealed to
the Chief Judge the swear in the Acting Governor, Dr.Goodluck Jonathan as the
substantive Governor Chief Dieperye Alaieyeseigha thereby ceased to be the
Governor of Bayelsa Sate from the moment of the removal by the law makers.
While the conditions that warranted his impeachment were not in doubt, the
procedure through which that end was realized remained highly controversial for
example, beside the intimidation of the law makers by the EFCC, it was alleged
that it was build-up to the impeachment of his predecessor, the Deputy Governor
had to move to Abuja while impeachment processes against the former Governor,
Chief Alamieyeseigha lasted. Jonathan returned to the State Capital, Yenogoa
only to be sworn in as the substantive Governor.
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