A rights group has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission to immediately investigate Rotimi Amaechi, the former governor of Rivers state over his embezzlement of more than N70 billion Naira generated from secret sales of state owned assets under his watch as governor.
The group known as Integrity Group, made the call with assurance that it is armed with documents to show that the former governor was culpable as contained in its first petition to President Buhari, EFCC and ICPC since August 2015.
In the opinion of the group, if Amaechi as Transport Minister has ordered the probe on corruption in the various Agencies under his Ministry, “we hold that Rotimi Amaechi has no right whatsoever to talk of corruption probe, as corruption cannot probe corruption”.
A statement credited to its coordinator, Livingstone Wechie in Port Harcourt on Sunday said Amaechi who had admissibly confessed and not denied these allegations has neither instituted any legal action in any court against his indictment by the Justice George Otakpo Omereji’s Commission of Inquiry Report as contained in the Government white paper nor the Integrity Group documentary evidence-backed-up petition as confirmed by the Nigerian Senate.
“The credibility of Mr President’s war on corruption through the EFCC and ICPC is in the balance, and will continually suffer grave casualty as long as the likes of Rotimi Amaechi and others with the cloak of corruption, who put Rivers state for sale with impunity, continue to boast and walk freely under federal covers to the dismay of the world.
“It is therefore on this premise that we totally agree with the representations made by the Rivers state Commissioner of information, Dr. Austin Tam-George, that the Rivers state government should recover stolen funds and fight corruption at all levels”.
The group insists that the Rivers state government should immediately commence the arrest and prosecution of all those indicted by the Justice Omereji panel Report as contained in the Government White paper, particularly the former local government caretaker chairmen who allegedly pocketed and ripped the state and poor farmers of the Agriculture loans.
“As champions of this struggle on probity, we shall not allow Rivers people to continually suffer the tragic loss of our common wealth occasioned by the actions of the Amaechi administration ostensibly on our behalf as we shall spare no legal option towards achieving this end because the fight against corruption in Rivers state and the loot recovery process has just began”, the group said.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
