BY FESTUS OKOROMADU
The United States Government said it has returned $954,000 (about N439 billion) illegally acquired and stocked in some financial institutions in the US by former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha to the state.
US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, who announced the development at a press briefing on Thursday in Abuja, said the fund was returned to the state through the Federal Government.
She said the decision was necessitated by the conviction that the former governor’s official salary during his tenure as a public servant from 1999 to his impeachment in 2005 did not match the said amount.
“However, during that time, he accumulated millions of dollars through abuse of office, money laundering,” she said.
President Muhammadu Buhari was said to have immediately directed that the money be utilized in developing the healthcare of Bayelsa State.
