The Dubai government has returned former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepereye Alamieyesiegha, to Nigeria, aborting the medical treatment he was undergoing in the Arab Emirate.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates constituting the United Arab Emirates with Abu Dhabi as capital.
Chief Alamieyesiegha who is being detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged corrupt practices had been flown to Dubai in April for medical attention for hypertension.

Vanguard gathered yesterday that the former governor was in the custody of the EFCC at its Awolowo Road office in Lagos but the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), which broke the news of the return, said he was forced out of Dubai by the Federal Government.

One of the ex-governor’s lawyers, Chief Mike Ozekhome, confirmed to Vanguard when contacted on the matter that he heard about the return only two days ago.

He said he was yet to ascertain the reason(s) for the action, adding that Chief Alamieyeseigha was, under normal circumstances, supposed to be undergoing medical treatment in Dubai.
Asked if he had seen Alamieyeseigha since he returned to the country, Ozekhome said he was far away when he got the information and had not seen him, as at yesterday, when he spoke to this reporter. He, however, said he would make efforts to reach him to get some first-hand information.



One of the reasons cited for the deportation by a security source was that the authorities in Dubai alleged that Alamieyeseigha was aiding and abetting the kidnap of hostages in the Niger Delta region and was getting returns from it.

He was also said to have been visited at the hospital in Dubai where he was receiving treatment by an influential politician who is his very close friend, and a combination of many other factors made the authorities in Dubai to declare him a security risk.

IMG in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Joseph Evah, alleged that Alamieyeseigha was being detained in Lagos in one of the EFCC cells and “forced to sleep on the bare floor without mattress to support himself.

“There is a deliberate plan to kill Alamieyeseigha. The government of Dubai where he was receiving medical attention was terrorised by EFCC to deport him to Nigeria contrary to the advice of Dubai doctors that Alamieyeseigha needed more medical attention abroad because of his multiple operation.

“We are shocked that he was forcefully deported to Nigeria and detained without access to doctors for the past two weeks in detention centres similar to those of Hitler in his evil days in Germany,” the group added.