Update:
The Nigerian Police yesterday disclosed that it failed to arrest former Governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye, after he was removed from office Monday because he slipped out of their grip before they knew it. — ThisDay Nov. 15, 2006. The governor was impeached on Monday (Nov 13) at about 4:30 AM. After about 2 years of impeachment drama, the feds dropped the ball at the last minute!
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Another Nigerian governor, Joshua Dariye, got impeached on Monday. Dariye of Plateau state became the fifth state executive to be impeached since December 2005.
Dariye impeachment saga was a long-drawn battle that started sometime in January 2004, when he jumped bail following his arrest in London for money laundering. Since then he has been able to manipulate and checkmate all [tag]impeachment[/tag] moves by the state legislature. His capitulation may not have been possible without the interference of the feds, particularly the [tag]EFCC[/tag].
Dariye is impeached, so what? I’m not impressed; in fact I’m indifferent and irked by the impeachment proceedings.
It took six (6) out of 22 legislators to remove Dariye.
That is one-third of the house! Dariye is a dirty rotten scoundrel, no doubt, but wasn’t the manner of his removal equally dirty? No matter how hard one tries to spin it: two wrongs don’t and can’t make a right.
Dariye is impeached, and - just as the Ekiti governor who was kicked out about a month earlier - has gone into hiding. He has simply disappeared into thin air.
Given the amount of energy, drama and arm-twisting that went into the impeachment processes, I assumed that the immediate arrest of these governors was assured if not guaranteed right afterwards.
What a wishful thinking; the ex-governors played the ace they have kept up their sleeves all along. They must have learn’t from one of their colleagues, Alamieyeseigha (aka Alams) of Bayelsa state, the first governor to swallow the impeachment pill in December 2005. Since that day, Alams hasn’t not been convicted, although his case has commenced the tortuous journey through Nigerian the legal system. But I doubt if he will ever be convicted; his health has deteriorated and may even die in detention.
So if at the end, these con-governors escaped, can’t be found and can’t be charged and summarily brought to justice, then no work is done! And you wonder why I’m unimpressed.
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