Former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has attributed his travails over allegations of corruption to the power tussle between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar over the 2007 presidency.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, Alamieyeseigha said he was persecuted by President Obasanjo because of the alleged plan by Atiku Abubakar to nominate him as his running mate during the 2007 presidential election. The former Bayelsa State governor said his arrest and travails in London and Nigeria over allegation of corruption was political, promising to expose those behind his travail in his memoirs, which he is presently writing.
His words: “The summary of it is that Atiku Abubakar, according to Obasanjo, nominated me as his running mate. End of story. He (Obasanjo) said it was over his dead body and that he would fight me and Atiku to the end of the world. He said that unless he dies, Atiku could not be president of Nigeria. That was the beginning and the end of the story.