There are signs that the former Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi is not ready to honour the probe process to be commenced by the Justice G Omereji commission which was set up to examine his administration.
The commission which was set up by Governor Nyesom Wike is expected to commence sitting today in Port Harcourt, but Amaechi has doubted the ability of the body to be fair to him, Vanguard reports.
In a statement from his media office, Amaechi blasts Wike saying that the governor had on several occasions publicly indicted him of corruption, stressing that there was no way a commission he established to probe him will come up with anything contrary.
However, Wike responded quickly, wondering why Amaechi is afraid of the commission, saying Amaechi’s media statements around the commission were ploy to put pressure on the government to halt the probe which he could not achieve through the court.
Wike spoke through his media aide, Mr Opunabo Nko-Tariah, saying there would have been no need for a judicial probe if the governor had found him guilty of the allegations. He further advised the former governor to appear before the commission to prove his innocence rather than running to the media to seek how to stop the commission from going ahead with its job.
In line with that, the former governor said he was willing to submit himself only if the commission is unbiased and ready to operate within the ambit of the law.
Amaechi said: “This Wike’s probe is dead on arrival. It’s ill-conceived and ill-motivated. Wike’s probe is designed to twist and distort, or even completely alter selected legitimate government transactions in his desperation to cook up, and fabricate sham cases of corruption against Amaechi. Wike’s probe commission shall not achieve anything beyond political excitements, entertainment and theatrics.
“Anyone who has been following events in Rivers State knows this Wike probe is just a fraudulent sham, a deceptive mission to indict Amaechi. Wike’s one-point agenda is to go after his predecessor,” he said.
The former governor said he will continue to use every constitutional and legal means available to protect his name and image from what he tagged as massive smear campaign, state-sponsored onslaught against him by the Wike led government whose sole agenda is a desperate search for his political downfall. He also took on Justice G. Omereji, the chairman of the commission, describing him as an enemy.
The former governor said that what Wike has set out to do is anything but a fair probe. He added in the statement that the commission will not be fair to him because it was set up to indict him.
He said: “Wike had repeatedly held that I, the person to be investigated, acted illegally in the disbursement of public funds and that I ran a corrupt government. Clearly, Wike has prejudged the matter and has shown his bias that I am guilty even before the investigations. This means Wike, with his prejudiced, made up mind has taken a position of a guilty verdict even before the outcome is known or established.”
Amaechi said that even while inaugurating his yeoman commission of Inquiry, Wike could not conceal his vendetta agenda and that the Rivers governor was clear to the panel members that their job is to indict the former governor.
He said that in order for Wike to carry out his dirty hack job, he got Omereji, a man who is well known to harbour a long held extreme anger, hatred and animosity against former governor Amaechi.
He said that Omereji has never disguised this stance and disposition towards Amaechi. The former governor hinted that Omereji even advised a former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) chairman in the state on measures to take against him. Amaechi said that there was no way Omereji would be fair on him since he had long ago expressed his hatred for him.
On the issue of empty treasury, Amaechi said: “Again, Wike claimed he met a completely empty treasury. That again is another big lie and grand deception. We have said that former governor Amaechi left billions of naira and we even went ahead to mention the banks and give the names of the accounts the money were, as at May 29, 2015. We challenge Wike to publish the statements of these accounts and other Rivers state government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) accounts as at May 29; to prove his claim and show the public that Amaechi left an empty treasury for him.”
Meanwhile, move by Governor Wike to stop the petition before the Rivers state governorship election petitions tribunal sitting in Abuja, seeking to sack him from office recently suffered setback.
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