Tobi Adebayo
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has directed the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to commence the prosecution of former governor, Rotimi Amaechi and Tonye Cole of Sahara Energy.
Wike gave the directive during the swearing-in ceremony of new Commissioners at the Executive Chamber of Government House, Port Harcourt,
The governor also warned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against over the harassment of the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Siminalaye Fubara.
He said “Attorney General, you’re at a critical period where people want to know what the State is going to do with the Judiciary Panel of Inquiry after the Supreme Court judgement on it. Luckily, you came at the right time when we have preferred criminal charges against the former governor (Amaechi), Sahara Energy, Tonye Cole and the rest of them.”
Governor Wike stated that there is need for Rivers people and the rest of the world to know what happened to the $50 million Dollar that disappeared from state’s account without a proof of business where it was deployed.
“So, you are coming at the right time to take over the matter and to make sure it is prosecuted diligently. I don’t want to hear excuses. Let the people see what happened to our money. The world will see how $50 million Dollar from our account was moved to a company without nothing to show whether there was a business,” the governor said.
Wike stated further that the EFCC needed to know that the “era of impunity and flagrant disobedience to the rule of law is gone and his administration will not accept such behaviour.”
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He maintained that the attempt to harass the State PDP candidate will not be accepted as the State government will not hesitate to charge the EFCC for contempt.
Governor Wike explained that before now, the Rivers State government had gotten a subsisting court judgment against the EFCC that it cannot investigate the State finances or its officers. According to him, there is also another judgment against EFCC by the PDP governorship candidate to enforce his fundamental rights, which has not been set aside.
” Rivers State government had judgment against EFCC since 2007. The court said you (EFCC) has no business in the financial transactions of the (Rivers) State. EFCC has been struggling to set aside that judgement until now. They have not even appealed it.”
Governor Wike noted that nobody will accept the use of EFCC at such political period to intimidate persons in order to achieve their skewed political goals.
“We are in a political period. People should not think that they will use EFCC to intimidate or manipulate him (Fubara). Nobody will accept that. So you (Attorney General) have to attach the judgment of the candidate against EFCC and send the right signal to them that we are not people that can be cowed,” he said.
The Commissioners sworn-in are: Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Hon. Isaac Kamalu as Commissioner of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning and Dr. George-Kelly, Dakorinama Alabo as Commissioner for Works and Special Projects.
