President Muhammadu Buhari has been challenged by the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to investigate and prosecute former governor, Rotimi Amaechi, over alleged corruption offences if he truly wants to fight corruption.
It’s a public knowledge that the PDP and APC have been involved in the public spats with the latter accusing the former of engaging in a smear campaign, one aimed at preventing the former governor from getting any appointment from the Buhari-led administration.
The governor had also at a function recently held in Abuja, declared that he was not a lover of money and that his successor, Chief Nyesom Wike, was only trying to tarnish his (Amaechi’s) image.
However, PDP, while insisting that Amaechi was corrupt, challenged him to stop hiding and urged the president and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and prosecute him.
Rivers PDP chairman, Mr Felix Obuah, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, on Thursday, admonished the former governor to stop hiding under the cover of President Buhari and should be man enough to respond to the alleged corruption charges against him.
Obuah, in the statement signed by his media aide, Jerry Needam, further alleged that the degree and number of fraudulent acts initiated and committed by the former governor were shocking and could no longer be glossed over.
“Amazed by new revelations by the (Christine) Ammanpour Live report on the Cable Network News (CNN), bordering on monies stacked in various foreign accounts by the Ubima-born former Governor Amaechi, it will be foolhardy for any responsible government not to take the mind-blowing fraudulent charges from both local and international scenes seriously.
“The Ammanpour Live report said the sum of over $757 million was stacked by Amaechi in a foreign United States (US) Bancorp/Minnesota account.
“A non-governmental organisation, the Integrity Group has also petitioned to President Buhari, as well as the chairman of EFCC of various cases of criminal breach of trust, unlawful self-enrichment and conversion of over N70 billion belonging to the Rivers State government by former governor Amaechi, among others.
“This is aside of over $105 million, amounting to about N21 billion which PDP said Amaechi hurriedly transferred from the sale of the Power Assets proceeds account with the Access Bank into accounts of three private companies.
“These three companies are namely the Advante Consulting and Management Company, Result Import Experts Co and the Capital Index Limited, all with the same business address, 25, Trans-Amadi Road, Port Harcourt,” he said.
Describing the alleged discoveries as curious and shocking, Obuah said there was also another unlawful payment to and fraudulent conversion of N4.6 billion by Clinoriv Specialist Hospital and Leisure Limited, and unlawful enrichment of Messrs Collect Nigeria Limited, allegedly used as a conduit pipe to the tune of N1,505,895,072, to defraud the state government under the guise of consultancy.
He said the list of alleged corrupt practices against Amaechi and functionaries of his government was endless and, therefore, called on the president to stop shielding him.
However, Rivers APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Finebone had, in an earlier statement, accused Governor Wike of planning to damage the reputation of his predecessor, using proxy and surrogates.
Stating that the aim of the attack on Amaechi was to stop him from getting any federal appointment, he said Wike had planned to do the damage work through some publications in the media, painting the former governor as being corrupt.
“One of the publications is a two-page affidavit allegedly deposed to by one Livingstone Wechie, a PDP member, who also claims to be the Media/Publicity Director of a nebulous group by the name Integrity Group accusing Honourable Amaechi of various corrupt practices when he was governor of Rivers State.
“Yet, in another publication, a non-existing group, going by the name ‘Association of former elected PDP local government council chairmen in Rivers State’, published a press release, in which it accused President Buhari of witch-hunting in his anti-corruption fight.
“The poorly written publication incoherently rambled from the matter of arrest of Dame Gesila Khan to what it called corrupt practices of former governor, Amaechi.
“In summary, it is now evident to all that the alarm raised by APC was credible as confirmed by the present actions of Governor Wike. It is obvious that the scheme was planned to be multidimensional in nature and to be executed by proxies of the governor to avoid direct confrontation with the Buhari-led Federal Government.
“An example that Governor Wike and his men have decided to make the war a proxy stems from the individuals and groups being used. Mr Livingstone Wechie who deposed to the affidavit is a known PDP member.
“His name was published as a member of the Media & Publicity Committee of the Rivers State PDP Governorship Campaign Organisation in a newspaper on Saturday, January 24, 2015.
“On the other hand, the Association of Former Elected PDP Local Government Council Chairmen in Rivers State does not exist, but contrived by Emeka Woke, the present Chief of Staff of the Government House, who was once a two-term Emohua Local Government Council chairman,” Finebone said.
APC, therefore, admonished Governor Wike to desist from the alleged project to bring down Amaechi, saying his action was based on “the fears that border on the saying that the guilty is constantly and perpetually afraid of his shadows.”
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