Amaechi in a statement on Saturday said the Rivers state judicial commission of inquiry instituted by Governor Nyesom Wike lived up to its expectations as “a shambolic inquisition panel” to indict him.
“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,” said Amaechi.The Justice Gabriel Omereji-led panel of inquiry submitted its report to the state governor last Wednesday, urging for the recovery of N53 billion “stolen” from the State Reserve Fund.
According to the panel, the stolen fund was removed from the N55 billion left in the reserve fund between 2014 and May 2015.
“The money went to individuals,” Omereji told journalists in Port Harcourt after submitting the report. “From the papers submitted to us, we also found out that the money was given to people they like.”
However, Amaechi dismissed the report, saying it achieved nothing but “political excitements, entertainment, and theatrics.”
He added: “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.”
Mr. Wike (a PDP member) succeeded Mr. Amaechi (who defected from the PDP to the APC last year) as the governor of Rivers state on May 29th this year. But there has been no love lost between both politicians as they struggle for the control of the state.
“From the chairman to the way the panel conducted its ‘probe’ activities, it was obvious even to the blind that the Wike panel was on a mission to indict Amaechi,” Amaechi said.
“Video from the public hearing of the panel that has gone viral on the internet clearly shows the world the crude inquisition Wike conducted against Amaechi,” he added.
The former governor also said that witnesses who appeared before the panel were coerced, directed, ordered and told in clear terms, sometimes with written notes from the commission staff, what not to say and what to say. Details on Premium Times.
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