THE last is certainly not yet heard about the impeachment
drama in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, the home
state of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, in Southern
Nigeria.

In the weeks ahead, the key actors in the drama and their
sponsoring god-fathers, are likely to be battling hard to brush
up their soiled images on what motivated them to act. But, at
the moment, and going by what is filtering out from the
security circles, graft appears to be the driving force of the
absurd drama.

Findings by AkanimoReports in Yenagoa, the state capital,
showed that there is a total of N52 million, around $347,000,
missing from the vault of the parliament.

A breakdown of the figure showed that there was a previously
approved sum of N28 million, about $187,000, that was
supposed to be paid to contractors for jobs done, and for the burial of a legislator’s father. Neither the contractors nor the
legislator concerned were settled. The previous Monday, at
the heat of the impeachment drama, the sum of N24 million,
around $160,000, grew wings and disappeared from the
Assembly treasury.

Already, anti-graft crusaders in the predominantly Ijaw state
are worried that the anti-corruption agencies in the country
under the watch of their kinsman, President Jonathan, were
yet to wade into the alleged looting of the Bayelsa Assembly’
s treasury by the masterminds of the impeachment exercise.

The obviously embarrassed Governor Henry Dickson, has
directed that all civil servants in the House who were privy to
the impeachment plot, and connived with the lawmakers in
its execution, be withdrawn and made to face the music in
accordance with the laid down procedures.

Top security sources in the state, say the authorities have a
closely guarded information about the sponsors of the failed
impeachment exercise. Among them are, King A. J. Turner, a
known friend of President Jonathan, who also hails from
Ogbia; Fred Agbedi, the Special Adviser to Governor Dickson
on Political Matters; Kiwei Onuneghen, the Chairman of
Southern Ijaw Local Government Area; General Afrika, a
repentant militant leader; Nestor Binabo, the immediate past
Speaker of the House and Acting Governor who handed over
to the incumbent; and Fini Anganye, the legislator who
announced himself as the new Speaker.

The name of the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) and presidential aide on
Niger Delta Affairs, Timi Alaibe, is also being mentioned as a
background mover for the impeachment.

It was further gathered that on Monday, June 4, there were some ‘’funny’’ movements within the Assembly
complex by some legislators. Apparently smelling a rat, the Chief of Staff of the speaker allegedly alerted his
boss who was at the time, out of the state on official engagement. The speaker in turn, allegedly directed the
Commissioner of Police to sealed-off the complex The police complied.

When the initial eight pro-impeachment legislators were denied access by the police, they allegedly put
calsl through to Agbedi, and some of their other key sponsors, to intervene.

Their alleged sponsors, prevailed on the police boss to grant them access under the pretense that they were
meeting to discuss an ‘’urgent state matter’’.

On entering the chambers of the House, they allegedly lured three other lawmakers to join them in carrying
out a documentation of Constituency Projects. That eventually swelled the number to 11.

But they sat without the mace, the symbol of legislative authority in parliament. Before then, it was also
gathered that the pro-impeachment legislators tried to get the Sergeant-At-Arms, to bring out the mace,
promising him a cash gift of N1.00 million if he plays ball.

After their sitting without the mace, the arrowheads of the failed impeachment, allegedly ‘’forced’’ the
Assembly Accountant to release to them, the sum of N24 million in the vault of the parliament. They
allegedly bolted away with the cash.

Political watchers in Bayelsa say the impeachment drama would not have arisen if the embattled speaker
had agreed to rip the state off of another N28 million. The story making the rounds in the state has it that
when Nestor, was speaker, he allegedly received approval for projects amounting to N28 million. But the
money did not get to its expected targets, including the sum of N3.5 million meant for the burial of a legislator’
s father.

With contractors pressing for their payment, records at the Accounts Department of the parliament tended to
show the contractors were ‘’paid’’. Worried, the speaker confronted the governor with the evidence, who in
turn declared that his administration has ‘’zero-tolerance for corruption’’.

Special Assistant to the Speaker on Media and Publicity, Piriye Kiyaramo, had told us on Friday that the
purported impeachment of his boss was an embarrassment to the government and people of the state,
maintaining that the exercise did not comply Order 44 of the Standing Orders of the House.

According to him, ”the House had earlier adjourned its sitting last week Wednesday, May 30, 2012, to
Tuesday, June 5, 2012, to enable it to transmit previously passed bills to the governor for his assent.

”While most of the members who traveled, were on their way back to the state, the 11 members, led by the
former acting governor, Mr. Nestor Binabo, forcefully made their way into the hallow chamber of the House,
claiming to have received directives from the state governor to hold an emergency session on that fateful
Monday to consider what they described as matters of urgent public importance.

”However, being blindfolded by their desperation to unseat the speaker, before he returned from his family
medical trip, they went ahead to sit without the symbol of authority in the House, being the mace, contrary to
the tradition and practice in every parliament, the world over, meaning that whatever decision, taken on the
sacred floor of the House on that Monday amounted to an exercise in futility”.

He is claiming that the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that, before a Speaker or his
deputy could be removed, there must be a two-third majority of members present on the floor of the House,
being 16 members out of the 24 members in the case of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, to constitute the
constitutionally required two third majority.

The speaker has therefore challenged the 11 members that carried out the purported impeachment exercise
to provide proof of evidence to the contrary, if they had two-third majority of members during their purported
sitting to impeach him.

”Prior to this unfortunate incident, which of course, is a distraction to the transformation agenda of the state
governor, the House had enjoyed a very cordial working relationship with the executive arm to the admiration
of the people of Bayelsa, with a record passage of about 10 bills in just two months, a feat that is being
applauded by all well meaning individuals, within and outside the state, describing it as being the first of its
kind in the of country.

”That the existing harmonious relationship between the House and the executive arm has been mutually
beneficial to the two arms of government.

”The 11 members who carried out the purported impeachment attempt of the speaker are being instigated to
fuel crisis between the House and the executive arm of government, to the detriment of the anticipated rapid
infrastructural development of Bayelsa state”, he said.

According to him, the exercise was ill intended and did not comply with the provisions of the constitution and
the standing rules of the House

The leadership and the House has accordingly tender an unreserved apology to President Jonathan, and
Governor Dickson, for what they described as ”the embarrassment and unnecessary distraction” the
purported impeachment episode may have caused them and the people of the state, ”at a time when the
whole country is mourning the colossal loss of lives, occasioned by the ill-fated Dana Airline crash in Lagos

NAIROBI — Kenya’s internal security minister George Saitoti, a key figure in his country’s fight against Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents in neighbouring Somalia, was killed in a helicopter crash Sunday.

His death was hailed by his foes in the Shebab but they stopped short of making a claim of responsibility for the crash, whose cause has not yet been determined.

“(Shebab) welcomes the death of the evil minister upon whose authorisation thousands of Muslims suffered both in Somalia and in Kenya,” the group said a message on its Twitter account.

Saitoti, 66, and five other people were killed when a police helicopter went down in the Ngong hills outside the capital shortly after take-off from Nairobi’s Wilson airport.

The other victims were Joshua Orwa Ojode, the assistant minister for internal security, the two pilots — including a woman — and two bodyguards.

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga paid tribute to Saitoti, who played a prominent role in the campaign against Somali insurgents, blamed for a series of terror attacks and kidnappings on Kenyan soil.

“The government will ensure a thorough probe” into the cause of the crash, Odinga told journalists at the crash site.

Saitoti, who was planning to run for president next year to succeed Kibaki, was on his way to attend a religious ceremony in western Kenya when the Eurocopter came down in the Kibuku forest around 8:30 am (0530 GMT).

An AFP journalist saw six bodies charred beyond recognition being removed from the wreckage, while wads of bank notes lay scattered at the scene.

Investigators from the police, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority sealed off the area to try to establish the cause of the accident.

“Most probably it was caused by bad weather, it was foggy at the time it went down,” a police officer involved in the investigation told AFP.

Another police source said Kenya had acquired the aircraft, which was fitted with state-of-the-art equipment, just five months ago.

One witness, farmer Ole Tolei, told AFP he had seen the aircraft “flying very low. It came down suddenly and we heard a loud explosion, and then it burst into flames.”

Saitoti’s ministerial role meant he controlled the state’s top investigative arms, the National Security Intelligence Service and the Criminal Investigation Department.

Kenya sent thousands of troops into southern Somalia in October to fight the Shebab and protect its border. It was Saitoti who made the first public announcement of the invasion, a full two days after Kenyan troops crossed the border.

The Kenyan force has since been joined by Ethiopia in a bid to rout the Islamist group from their strongholds in the south and centre of the country.

Since Kenyan troops entered Somalia, several people have been killed in a series of attacks in border areas, and a bomb blast in a Nairobi shopping centre last month wounded 38 people.

Saitoti declared recently that the government would not be cowed by “terrorists”.

But the Shebab warned Sunday that it would exact revenge for the actions of foreign forces in Somalia.

“For the hundreds of Muslims killed and displaced by Kenya’s brutal invasion, Saitoti’s death is but a droplet of justice in a sea of oppression,” Shebab tweeted.

“The remaining invaders should be expectant that Allah will inflict his punishment by himself upon the kuffar (infidels) or by the hands of mujahideen,” the militia said.

Kibaki said Sunday’s deaths were “a devastating loss to our country,” adding: “Minister Saitoti will forever be remembered as a hardworking and determined public servant who dedicated his time to the service of the Kenyan people.”

Saitoti had also served as finance minister and was vice-president in the administration of Daniel Arap Moi from 1989-1997 and again from 1999-2002.

He jumped ship ahead of the 2002 election to join the opposition camp led by Kibaki after Moi, constitutionally barred from standing again, chose the then little-known Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding father, as his successor.

The First Lady, Amai Grace Mugabe, has disclosed that she is the only person who can speak freely and candidly to the President while dismissing claims that she is the “strong hand” behind most of his political decisions.

Revealing her innermost thoughts and feelings on various issues among them politics, love, parenting and the Zimbabwean woman, the First Lady shared — in an unplanned and spontaneous exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail last week — that she has quite a close relationship with the President who has become her best friend.

“He is my best friend. We are very, very close . . . We talk about a lot of different things and we shout at each other as well. That’s normal, we are normal people. You can not say in a relationship that you will not anger each other. So it would be a blatant lie if I said we do not fight. We do sometimes, but then we talk and iron out our differences. “We are human beings . . . It’s only natural. There are things that he might do that I don’t like and I will tell him that. I remind him that ‘I’m the only person who can talk to you like this and he has to listen to me.

“He is not the kind of person who will say ‘listen to me because I’m the President or even because of the age difference’ no . . . I’m not his daughter, I’m his wife. I’m his companion for life.

We talk a lot. Zvinonzi zviuya hazviwanane, we are very unique people. He is one man who is very clean. I am telling you; he is very clean and I always say thank you God for giving me such a clean man besides the fact that he is very intelligent and he is not a lazy person. “I am somebody who has an inquiring mind and every time you ask him something, he is willing to articulate on that subject, expand on it. It does not matter what time of day it is. You can ask him, he will make time for you. He is a very wonderful man. He won’t say ‘I am too tired or I have a lot of work to do.’ He will never say that.

“I remember just two weeks ago, he had just arrived from a trip, it was late at night and I was writing something and I said to him, ‘I want you to read this for me, please’. I told him ‘I know it’s late, but you have to read it for me because I want to finish it by morning’. So he had to do it and he takes his time. He is very thorough. If he is going to work on a speech, he could have a draft done, but he is going to work on it. Oh, yes, he is a different person.’’

On claims that she influenced most of the President’s political decisions, Amai Mugabe said: “Nonsense! That’s nonsensical! He is a very intelligent man, please! What you are telling me is that you underestimate my husband. As intelligent as he is … You know sometimes when I want to say something to him I am so scared because I know the answers I am going to get.

“When he stands up to speak at any moment, even now, impromptu, if you say, Mr President, make a speech, he will do it amazingly. Are you then saying he carries a tape recorder so that he listens to me first before he speaks? . . . No, do not do this to the President.’’ Last year, there were reports that the President was suffering from an undisclosed ailment and had visited Singapore for treatment. Commenting on that trip and the

President’s health, Amai Mugabe said the Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces had actually made the trip to Singapore to accompany her after she injured herself in the gymnasium. “That’s what they say (the President’s alleged ill-health), they say Mr Mugabe is a very old man and this and that, but he is very sound and lucid. Very, very sound, I’m telling you, and very energetic, too.

“He will not miss his morning exercises, seven days a week. At that age, he is very lucky he inherited his mother’s genes. We think when she died she was over 100 years old and she was very sound. She was never sick at all and the President is not sick at all.’’ On the claims about her own health: “I injured my back in the gym . . . Do I look like a sick person? I am not sick, not for now. But even if I were sick, I am a human being.

We all get sick and afflicted. So really it’s nothing to talk about.’’ The First Lady has often been portrayed as an extravagant spender with exquisite tastes, responding to those allegations she said: “I am a humble person, but I also like to dress well. I am like my mother, she dresses well, so did my father . . . I think it’s an art that’s in-born. I love dressing up, but I also make my own clothes. I design my own clothes.’’

On the alleged shopping sprees, she said: “They will say that because if they can’t get at (President) Mugabe they have to find a soft spot to get at him. So they think Grace is a soft spot, but I don’t think they know the real Grace. I’m not as soft as they think I am.’’ She has also been previously linked to alleged clandestine construction deals in Zimbabwe involving some business people from the Republic of Korea. Asked to shed light on her business ventures, the First Lady responded: “My husband and I are more into agriculture. We are farmers and, of course, we have been empowered through the land

reform programme. We are running a dairy, but it is a very complicated business running a dairy, I have had to work hard on it . . . . We have put up a big parlour there and we are now probably the second largest in the region. I am told there is a big one in South Africa in terms of points to milk each cow. The South African one has 84 milking points while ours has 64 clusters . . . We have also decided to add value to our milk so that we really make a little bit more money for ourselves and, of course, the workers.

So we are putting up a processing plant and it’s almost complete. “We also have a lot of beef cattle. About 2 000 cattle. So that is what we do really and nothing more. Yes, I intend to do other things, especially to support this project (the Grace Mugabe Orphanage and primary school), but I cannot talk about something that is not in existence yet.’’

On politics the First Lady remarked: “No one can equate what the President has done for this country, no matter what is said in future: no one; nobody. “He is one very humble person. He carries himself with a degree of humility; a down-to-earth person. “He is a caring and considerate man. He thinks about his people so much. You can observe that when he talks to the people, he talks with emotion, with passion. He wants

Zimbabweans to be high up there in terms of education; in terms of how they see themselves, we should not look down upon ourselves. “When the President talks about all of these things you can see that he really has a vision for this country and he wants Zimbabweans to be in charge of their economy. He wants the people to be in charge of their God-given natural resources.”

On the upcoming elections: “I think with the way things are at the moment and if what I hear is true, our party (Zanu-PF) stands a better chance.’’ And on the land reform programme: The land issue is a very emotional issue to me because I know my parents were deprived of this land; their motherland. So you know what, they (Zimbabwe’s detractors) should not fool themselves. Sometimes they think like children really. I do not quite understand them, they hope that one day all the

Zimbabweans will move out of the land so that they move back in . . . because Mugabe is not occupying all this land there are Zimbabweans who have been allocated these farms. It is not Mugabe and his family.’’

Asked about the election campaigns she ran alongside the President in 2008, the First Lady said it was her duty, as a Zimbabwean, to rally the nation against Western aggression.

She said while she had no plans to actively get involved in politics, she would continue to support Zanu-PF fully. Her visibility during the 2008 polls, she said, was misconstrued by many as an indication that she was venturing into politics.

“Ahh . . . nyika yanga yaenda (the country was almost overrun by the enemy during the 2008 harmonised elections). So, I decided I could not watch things take the direction that had not been anticipated and I had to play my part as a citizen of this country. Of course, a lot of people said a lot of things, putting words into my mouth. “. . . I was just doing it because I realised that I had a duty also to talk to the people, make them understand and tell them that whatever they were being promised (by the opposition and their backers) they were being fooled and all this vilification, especially of the First Family, is because of the land (reform programme).

“. . . I am not saying I want to engage in politics, but for people to confront me and say I want to run for President just because I am campaigning for my party is wrong. Who has the right more than me, to talk about my country? I am also a Zimbabwean. That is the more reason I work for this country and that is why I am working here (at the orphanage). “I have to defend my country as well, as much as everybody else who is doing the same.”