eddie sayers born 1941 is a former northern irish loyalist who served as brigadier of the ulster defence associations uda mid ulster brigade in the 1980ssayers ran a small business in omagh county tyrone and became involved in unionist politics joining ian paisleys democratic unionist party dup he stood for the party in mid ulster at the northern ireland assembly election 1973 taking 4454 firstpreference votes but narrowly missed electionin the late 1970s sayers left the dup and became active in the paramilitary ulster defence association uda he was quickly appointed brigadier of its mid ulster brigade he stood for election to omagh district council in 1981 as an independent unionist but came bottom of the poll with only 74 votes he also ran borderline security which acted as a front for the uda within the uda he became noted as a close comrade of overall leader andy tyriein 1987 the investigative journalist roger cook filmed sayers attempting to extort money from a reporter posing as a businessman this was broadcast the following year as an episode of the cook report and was considered extremely embarrassing by the uda not least because it showed sayers struggling with basic arithmetic in the immediate aftermath of the broadcast the uda announced that sayers had been removed from his position although in fact he remained as brigadier in midulster until he was arrested sometime later he was tried at belfast crown court in 1989 and sentenced to ten years in prisonwhile in the maze prison sayers studied to become a legal clerk he was released in 1999 and gained employment at taylor co solicitors in belfast in this role he worked on legal cases for johnny adair but his employer lost his licence to practice law in 2003 while facing bankruptcy proceedings in 2005 sayers was charged with the theft of more than 700000 and of dishonestly obtaining a mortgagein 2006 sayers was declared personally bankrupt for failing to pay overdue taxes while in 2009 he was fined for leaving waste on land in county fermanagh despite orders to clean up the sitesayers daughter diana won the miss northern ireland title in 2003