 Disguised as a woman, smuggled across borders by train, plane and speedboat -- the flight of a Nigerian state governor charged with money-laundering in Britain is fast becoming the stuff of legend in his home country. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha earned the title of "Master of Deception" in Tuesday's This Day newspaper, which published a digital photo-montage of him in a red dress, sparkling necklace, red woman's head-dress and lipstick.
The governor of Bayelsa state was facing trial in London for laundering 1.8 million pounds. But in Nigeria he enjoys immunity from prosecution and when he returned home on Monday thousands of supporters gave him a hero's welcome. Police had found 1 million pounds in cash at his London address and authorities have restrained cash and property worth 10 million pounds held in Britain in the governor's name. | MY NAME IS DIEPREYE ALAMIEYESEIGHA, GOVERNOR OF BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA..... |
But Alamieyeseigha forfeited a 1.25 million pound bond, jumped bail and made his way home with forged documents and wearing women's clothes, according to the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. | DO TO EVENTS BEYOND MY CONTROL I AM UNABLE TO ACCESS TEN MILLION POUNDS HELD IN BRITISH BANKS. I AM ASKING FOR YOU HELP |
Tuesday's Vanguard newspaper, quoting a security source, said the governor took a train from London to Paris, then flew from Paris to Douala, a port in Cameroon which neighbors Nigeria. There, a speedboat was waiting to whisk him back to his home village of Amassoma, in the mangrove swamps and creeks of the Niger Delta, where he arrived in the dead of night. Asked how he had managed to evade British controls, he was quoted as saying in Nigeria's Sun newspaper: "I don't know myself. I just woke up and found myself in Amassoma." The Guardian quoted a personal aide of the governor in London as saying the escape was run "like a mafia operation." A British security source said Alamieyeseigha had not been watched around the clock because that would have required a large team due to the layout of his London home. "We don't do surveillance unless it's a terrorist or high-profile case. In white-collar crime or fraud it isn't done," the source said. "If you're dressed as a woman and you carry the passport of a woman I don't think anyone is going to look too closely. Our borders are not too secure." News filtered out in the early hours that the governor was back and by daybreak hundreds thronged his Amassoma home. Then he drove in triumph into the state capital Yenagoa, where thousands lined the streets to cheer him. The governor is popular in Bayelsa, partly because he is an ethnic nationalist from the Ijaw, the dominant tribe there. Not all Bayelsans were delighted to see him back, however, and on Tuesday about 2,000 people marched in protest in Yenagoa. Pictures from Monday showed a beaming Alamieyeseigha waving to the crowds wearing a man's cream suit and a black hat. He looked much trimmer than when he left Nigeria, suggesting that at least one aspect of his trip to Europe was a success. He underwent a tummy-tuck operation in Germany just before he was arrested in London in September. |