The immediate past governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, has dared his successor, Barrister Nyesom Wike to go to court over the recommendations of the Justice George Omereji-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Sales of Valued Assets belonging to the state by his (Amaechi) administration.
This is coming barely 24 hours after the the state government told newsmen at a briefing that the commission of inquiry had indicted Amaechi and asked him and others to return the sum of N97billion belonging to the state.
But Amaechi in an electronic mail issued from his media office yesterday said that rather than engage in theatrics and ‘childish’ tantrums, Wike should prosecute him if there was any case of corruption against him.
The incumbent government has directed its Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Chinwe Aguma, SAN, to begin a process of prosecuting Amaechi, and other indicted by the panel should they fail to return the said sum.
But the former governor specifically stated that from the way the panel conduct its probe, it was obvious that Wike established it with a mind set to indict him, maintaining that the outcome of the Omereji commission was not surprising to him.
The statement said, “Indeed, the Wike panel was an inquisition against Amaechi. Wike should go to court if he has any case of alleged corrupt activities against Amaechi. His panel is not and can never be a law court.
Wike’s regular childish tantrums, theatrics, comedy and drama of screaming huge bogus and phantom figures of missing or stolen or misappropriated billions of naira by the Amaechi administration have become a silly and sickening distraction.
“Mr. Wike, since you do not know and none of your coterie of court-jesters is bold enough to tell you, we will tell you; you sound like a broken record. Our polity can certainly do without this madness.
“As we expected, the Justice G. O Omereji Commission of Inquiry set up by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike supposedly to probe the immediate past Governor of the State, Rt. Hon. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi did not disappoint. The panel lived up to expectations as a shambolic inquisition panel that was set up to indict Amaechi.
“Crudely, without any sense of finesse or attempt to disguise its mission to ‘hack down Amaechi’, the Omereji panel did the bidding of its paymaster. As we earlier warned, it turned out to be a comedy, a circus show to grab media headlines with bogus, phantom and fabricated claims of corrupt practices against former governor Amaechi and officials of his administration.
“It achieved nothing beyond political excitements, entertainment and theatrics,” Amaechi said.
He explained that Justice Omereji showed his bias against him and former officials of his administration by showing that they were corrupt even before the facts were brought before the panel.
The former governor recalled that Omereji had once during the sitting of the panel said that he (Omereji) would have locked up “these so-called officials”.
