Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike, has directed the state’s Attorney-General and commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor, to begin a thorough probe of the alleged illegal financial dealings involving the state’s immediate past governor, Rotimi Amaechi, Mr. Tonye Cole, Sahara Energy, and others over the sale of state assets. ayokinews.com reports
Issuing the directive, Wike 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.”
He stated that the people of Rivers state and the rest of the world deserve to know what happened to the $50 million that vanished from the state’s account with no record of how it was spent.
“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.
Meanwhile, Wike has ordered Adangor to submit a strong-word protest letter to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) over the intentional harassment of the state’s PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Siminalaye Fubara.
The EFCC officers recently sought to harass and threaten Fubara, who served as the Accountant General of Rivers State before becoming the PDP governorship candidate, according to Wike.
The governor stated that the EFCC must understand that the period of impunity and brazen disobedience to the rule of law is long gone, and that his government will not tolerate such conduct from the commission.
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The effort to harass the state PDP candidate, he said, will not be tolerated, and the state government will not hesitate to charge the EFCC with contempt.
Wike noted that the Rivers state government had already obtained a court order prohibiting the EFCC from investigating the state’s finances or personnel.
He said that the PDP governorship candidate had also obtained a judgment against the EFCC to enforce his basic rights, which had not been overturned.
“Rivers State government had a judgment against EFCC since 2007. The court said you (EFCC) have 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,” Wike stated.
According to Wike, the use of the EFCC to frighten people in order to accomplish distorted political aims during this political period, would not be tolerated.
“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 added.
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