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An obscure investigator attached to the federal government of
Nigeria
surreptitiously contacted me sometime ago. WayoGuy, he said to me, your country needs you. I thought it was hoax and hung up the phone.
When he called back and invited me to the Nigerian Embassy in
Washington
, I was quickly awakened to the authenticity of his message. The secret service of the Nigerian government had identified me, he said, as a possible agent or legal adviser to assist the government in (a) discovering the locations of the stolen funds hidden by the former governors and (b) obtaining confessions of guilt from the former governors.
The investigator explained that the Nigerian government had been seriously frustrated with the slow-moving courts, the evasiveness and obstructions of justice by the accused and suspected governors and their lawyers, and the difficulties of identifying the whereabouts of much of the stolen funds without the cooperation of the governors.
I was told that these accused governors had been interrogated by agents of the government but they were not forthcoming with any significant information that will lead to the discovery of the funds. To me, the refusal of the suspects to cooperate with the government was understandable. It was normal human behavior aimed at self-preservation.
I was told that the government was afraid to introduce force or intimidation or physical harm in the interrogations to avoid tainting any confessions obtained as inadmissible evidence in the court of law. This government concern, to me, was understandable.
Filled with a sense of patriotism that I was chosen by my government, I started to sing the Nigerian national anthem, “
Nigeria
, we hail thee …” before I realized that I was singing the old national anthem. I was embarrassed as I struggled to upgrade my memory with the new anthem.
Happily, I agreed to help. I told the investigator exactly what I needed the government to do within one week. It would be a six-step process. He agreed. The next day, I flew out of
Washington
, straight to
Bayelsa
State
, to meet with the recently released former governor Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha. I wanted to talk to him about my plans.
First Step:
One week later, the agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as the first step to my plan, rounded up all the suspected and accused former governors and brought them to
Abuja
.
They were governors Chimaroke Nnamani (
Enugu)
, Peter Odili (
Rivers
State
), Ibrahim Saminu Turaki (
Jigawa
State
), Joshua Dariye (
Plateau
State
), Jolly Tanko Nyame (
Taraba
State
), Orji Uzor Kalu (
Abia
State
), Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha (
Bayelsa
State
).
Others were Boni Haruna (
Adamawa
State
), Sani Yerima (
Zamfara
State
), George Akume, (
Benue
State
), James Ibori (
Delta
State
), Lucky Igbinedion (
Edo
State
), Achike Udenwa (
Imo
State
), Ahmed Makarfi (
Kaduna
State
), Bola Tinubu (
Lagos
State
), Attahiru Bafarawa (
Sokoto
State
), and Lucky Igbinedion (
Edo
State
).
Each governor was under house arrest and was given a room at the newly completed NICON INTERNATIONAL HOTEL in
Abuja
. Each room was equipped with a television monitor, which played only tapes and videos from a central location.
Each governor was given a notepad by a police offcier with specific instructions to identify all the locations, including banks and foreign countries, where they stashed stolen funds and the names of those who assisted them in secreting the funds. When the notepads were handed out, they all sneeringly grinned at the idea that they would voluntarily list sources of stolen funds, especially Kalu and Odili who scoffed and threatened to slap the police officer.
Second Step:
The next day, all the governors were brought out to the conference room of the hotel. Then five heavily armed soldiers walked in. Pointing at Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha, the soldiers asked him if he had filled out the notepad with the information requested. Very loudly and pompously, he declared that he would not fill it out. “So you will not?” asked the soldiers, very calmly.
Third Step:
The soldiers took Alamieyeseigha out to the next room and, while the other governors listened, the already tense atmosphere was completely shattered as loud and heavy sounds of gunshots were followed by screams from Alamieyeseigha. Then everything went quiet.
Fourth Step:
All the governors were quickly returned to their rooms.
Fifth Step:
That evening, we inserted a “news” video in the central video player of the hotel showing the covered “dead body” of Alamieyeseigha, shot by the soldiers for refusing to fill out a government notepad with requested information about stolen money.
Sixth Step:
The next day, we went to each room and collected the completed list of the whereabouts of stolen funds. You should see how anxious the governors were to cooperate now. You should have seen how quickly they were giving up their accomplices. Come and see how humble Kalu and Odili have since become. You should have seen their faces and how jittery they looked.
Epilogue:
Before letting them out of house arrests, the government must move quickly to retrieve, seize, freeze, or otherwise safeguard the identified funds and their sources. Before letting them out to see their lawyers, who will accuse the government of shooting Alamieyeseigha in order to intimidate and coerce confessions and information from the governors, make sure that Alamieyeseigha is sitting happily in his Bayelsa home, that the corpse seen in the video as his body is destroyed, that the ‘news’ video played for the governors is destroyed.
The government can then walk into the courts, on the trial dates, and deny that the confessions were obtained illegally.
WayoGuy
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Posted by Robot| 29.09.2007 14:59