Alamieyeseigha’s Widow Speaks on How PDP Conspired, Killed Her Husband

Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa
Margaret, the widow of ex-Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has alleged that contrary to the perception that her husband died as a result of intimidation by the current government, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which the politician belonged to actually planned his untimely death.

Alamieyeseigha, who died in October last year, his widow alleged, was hounded by the PDP, which his husband struggled with a handful of other politicians to build.

While exonerating the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the events which led to the 2015 death of her husband, the former First Lady of Bayelsa State traced the Ijaw leader’s demise to traitors among his people who worked with the PDP to truncate the politician’s life. She added that it was neither the APC that arrested nor humiliated her late husband by seizing all that belonged to him, noting that all the activities that led to the man’s death were carefully planned by the party at the centre at that time.

According to Mrs. Alamieyeseigha, though the events leading to the death of her husband sparked controversy between the PDP and APC ahead of the governorship election, the killing of the late ex-governor started with his removal from office.

She maintained that the conspiracy was later followed by the arrest, trial and seizure of properties owned by her husband under the leadership of the PDP.

Speaking with journalists during an event to round off the first year anniversary of Alamieyeseigha’s death, the woman said the controversy surrounding the death of her husband was not necessary.

“The PDP frustrated and sent my husband to his early grave and not the APC as widely speculated.”
“I can categorically say today that it was the PDP that arrested my husband, seized all his properties and humiliated him to the point of his death. It is PDP that killed my husband and not the APC.

“It was PDP that arrested my husband, it was PDP that humiliated my husband and killed him. At the end, they seized everything that belonged to him,” she said.

She continued: “It was the PDP that tormented my husband and he died as a result of the humiliation he suffered in the hands of the PDP. As far as I am concerned, they humiliated him and took everything away from us.”
Mrs. Alamieyeseigha described her husband as a man who wholeheartedly fought for the emancipation of the Ijaw people, stressing that it was sad that the same people he fought for betrayed and eventually killed him.

Recounting how her husband was protested against and humiliated before he was arrested, she called on the people of the Ijaw ethnic nationality to shun acts that may cause them to betray their leaders.

She stressed: “When my husband took over the mantle of leadership, he saw how his people were suffering. As an intelligent man, he saw the need to fight for resource control as the way out for his people.

“But at the end it was the same people who he fought for that betrayed him. They sold him out to the PDP that eventually killed him. I want to advise the Ijaw people to stop betraying their leaders, so that they can move forward.”

Alamieyeseigha was elected governor of Bayelsa State in May 1999 as a member of the ruling PDP, but was later detained in London on charges of money laundering in September 2005.
While the PDP-led federal government mounted pressure on the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, he was impeached on allegations of corruption on 9 December 2005.

He pleaded guilty to charges of corruption in July 26, 2007, and was sentenced to two years.
He died at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital on October 10, 2015, but many believe that his constant harassment by the current government might have quickened his death.
However, before his demise, he was granted presidential pardon by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2013.