Fresh moves to extradite ex-Bayelsa governor Diepreye Alamieyesiegha to the United Kingdom in connection with his unfinished corruption trial is generating serious tension in the state.

Several socio-political organisations have described the plan as a wrong step in the wrong direction.

Chairman of the Bayelsa State caucus in the National Assembly, Foster Ogola, condemned the plan in Yenagoa during a function where Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, was endorsed for a second term by several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the civil society organisations.

He raised posers on the rationale for the extradition notice by Britain. According to him, the latest moves were suspicious, adding that Alamieyesiegha had gone through a legal process, prosecuted by a competent court of jurisdiction, indicted, sentenced and was granted presidential pardon.

“What is the basis of this new extradition having gone through all legal process culminating in a presidential pardon?” he queried.

Ogola, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues in the National Assembly, called for restraint on the extradition moves in the interest of justice.

Lending his voice to Ogola’s position, Bayelsa State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Serena Dokubo-Spiff, who also spoke at the event, condemned the extradition notice which, he said, smacked of high level conspiracy.

Dokubo-Spiff accused the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state as brains behind the extradition plot which he regarded as a conscious step to destroy the Ijaw nation. This, he said, was unfortunate and a clear injustice.

His words: “The extradition notice smacks of high level conspiracy contrived by some powerful elements in the APC Government, who are out to destroy the Ijaw nation. They plotted against our son, Mr. President and denied him the opportunity of returning to power and now they are after another noble son of ours in the person of DSP Alamieyesiegha. This injustice will not stand. How many times will a man be convicted for the same offence?”

The party chairman castigated the APC leadership in the state, saying its antics suggested that it was against the Ijaw nation and why the PDP has been telling the people to reject it at the polls.

“This election is not about Dickson but the collective interest of the Ijaw nation. From all indications, the APC is against the Ijaw nation and why our people must reject it,” he said.

On its part, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has reiterated its position on earlier statement about the extradition notice, warning that the Ijaw nation will not sit idly and watch its leaders disgraced by those it referred to as “cabals’ in the Buhari administration.

The statement said that the Buhari government was being selective in the fight against corruption, asking why no northerner has so far been invited to answer corruption charges nor extradited. Quoting a similar poser by the former Senate President Ken Nnamani, the IYC also asked why has Buhari not deemed it fit to prosecute those involved in the Halliburton scam in which highly placed personalities, among the former president Olusegun Obasanjo, are allegedly implicated.

•Photo shows Alamieyesiegha.

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