LAGOS, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The South African authorities have seized a block of luxury apartments belonging to Nigeria's former governor of Bayelsa state Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, an official statement said on Thursday.

    "The Asset Forfeiture Unit of South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), yesterday (Wednesday) obtained a court order to attach and place under curatorship, the properties estimated at 2.3 million U.S. dollars," said the statement.

    Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached and arrested last December after jumping bail in London, is being tried in a high court in Nigeria for alleged fraud and looting of state funds while in office.

    The order, issued by a high court sitting in Cape Town, included the seizure of all the contents of the apartments, including furniture worth 250,000 dollars and Alamieyeseigha's share certificates held in the name of Royal Albatross Properties.

    In granting the order, the presiding judge, Justice Dennis Davis, appointed a curator who has the responsibility to sell the property "probably by auction and to repatriate the proceeds to the Nigerian government."

    Davis also ordered that anyone affected by the order might return to court to show, within 14 days, good cause why the order should be reconsidered.

    The statement quoted head of the forfeiture unit, Wille Hofmeyr,as saying that the seizure was the biggest anti-graft cooperation between South Africa and any foreign authority to combat corruption internationally.

    Alamieyeseigha was originally arrested last September at a British airport for money laundering and then granted bail on condition he should report daily to the police. But two months later, he jumped bail and escaped to Nigeria dressed as a woman.

    His impeachment and arrest has sparked a spate of attacks on oil facilities in southern Nigeria that cut the country's output by 455,000 barrels per day or around a fifth. Enditem