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Amaechi’s commissioners dismiss Wike’s commission report

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APC calls for Wike's arrest

Former commissioners who served under former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi have described as fabrications the reports by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry in that state set up by Governor Nyesome Wike to look into the financial activities of the Amaechi years.
The commissioners dismissed the report of misappropriation of state funds as claimed by the Commission of Inquiry against Amaechi, insisting, that the report was not only a product of illegality, but mere fabrications to malign Amaechi and those who worked with him.
According to the ex-commissioners, who spoke at a briefing, it was illegal for a governor to set up a panel of inquiry based on mind- set, even as they claimed, that Governor Wike and the chairman of the judicial commission of inquiry, Justice George Omereji, had allegedly set their minds on issues to be investigated by the commission before it even commenced proceedings.
Some of the former ex- commissioners at the briefing were Mrs. Ibim Semenitari (Information); Mr Chamberlain Peterside (Finance), Mr Emma Chinda (Agriculture); Mr Austin Wokocha (Power) and Mr George Tolofari (Transport) among others.
The former commissioners insisted that they all left handover notes in their various ministries before bowing out on May 29.
On the mono rail project, they recalled that Wike was the Chief of Staff to former Governor Amaechi at the time the decision was taken to construct a monorail to ease traffic congestion in Port Harcourt metropolis, noting that it was a collective decision of the state executive council.

Read also: Rivers to prosecute Amaechi over missing N97bn

They said that budgetary allocations for the project were expended on it, noting that at the time the project took off due process law was not in force in the state, but as soon as it was enacted, drivers of the project started interfacing with the necessary quarters in relation to the law on the project,
They said: “The decision to construct the Rivers Monorail Project was jointly adopted by the Rivers State Executive Council during Amaechi’s first tenure when the present governor, Chief Wike, was the Chief of Staff to the Governor at the time. When the decision to construct the monorail was taken, there was no Due Process law in existence in the state. But it should be noted that after the enactment of the Due Process law, the monorail project owner engineers, Arcus Gibb and officials of the Rivers State Ministry of Transport were constantly briefing and keeping the Due process team up to date on all issues as they related to the project. This fact can be backed up with several minutes of meetings between the Due Process team, officials of the Ministry of Transport and Arcus Gibb.”

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