Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, and his kinsman, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, immediate past governor and immediate past Minister of Transportation, may have crashed out of the presidential primaries of their parties, but they seem to have huge energy and appetite to continue their fight to finish struggle back home.
In the past 48 hours, Port Harcourt seems to have exploded with direct and proxy wars.
Sim Fubara who was picked by Wike to replace him in 2023 (Guber flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party) escaped capture by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Port Harcourt International Airport on his way from Abuja to collect his certificate of return from the PDP national headquarters.
Not a man that allows any blow un-returned, Gov Wike, two days later (Friday), ordered immediate filing of criminal proceedings against Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) guber flag-bearer, Tonye Cole, over N96Bn matter.
As it is now, while the EFCC will be chasing Wike’s Fubara about ahead of the guber campaigns, court bailiffs would be chasing both Amaechi and his Cole about in the state.
Amaechi, Cole, N96bn
Gov Wike had immediately he sat on the guber seat in Port Harcourt in 2019 set up a panel of inquiry into what he called sale of Rivers power assets and alleged diversion of the proceeds by the preceding administration.
Most Amaechi men regarded this as witch-hunt and a stunt to deny Amaechi ministerial appointment in the Muhammadu Buhari administration that the then out-going governor helped to install to the chagrin of the Niger Delta kinsmen and friends of Goodluck Jonathan.
The panel swiftly returned what looked like indicting verdict. The out-gone governor’s camp said the panel was a mere assemblage of Amaechi-haters.
Amaechi took the state government to court over the report of the panel saying the governor did not follow due process as provided in the state’s law for setting up such panels. The case lingered on since those years until on the eve of the APC presidential primaries, the Supreme Court ruled that Wike had the right but that the panel had no right to indict Amaechi except a court did it.
Wike said he would consult the elders of the state on whether or not Amaechi and Cole (who is a guber candidate) should be sent for criminal prosecution to refund the N96Bn.
Amaechi had maintained his innocence, saying the state executive council then approved sale of the power plants and that the proceeds were captured in the budgets.
Cole has continued to say his company, Sahara-Energy, did not collect any $50m from the coffers of the state government.
It is not clear if the elders of the state had been consulted and what their verdict was because the governor is not known to have hosted a stakeholders forum so far and there is no state executive council (because the cabinet as dissolved weeks back).
Read also: Gov Wike battles to keep Rivers PDP – cancer-free
It is however rumoured that Amaechi camp is keen on seeing that Wike’s Fubara gives account of the N117Bn that the EFCC said he helped to withdraw across the count (cash) over a period of time. Most opposition persons think the EFCC case is a soft spot on the Wike quest to retain control over the Brick House, while Wike may be banking on using the panel report to secure indictment in court against Amaechi and his Cole, something that would knock them out of contention and pave the way for Fubara.
Some other important contenders such as Magnus Abe and Dumo Lulu-Briggs seem to hope that both Wike and Amaechi may cancel themselves out and leave the priced seat for a third party. They seem to intensify guber efforts in other parties outside PDP and APC.
Wike, Fubara, N117bn
If Wike as a governor has immunity, Fubara does not have, so some APC insiders say. Wike however hinges his argument on a 2006 court order against any attempt to investigate officials of the state government. This order seems to reinforce the immunity clause that protects Wike.
However, the EFCC seems to know where they have got a window to strike, and have since declared Fubara, until the guber primaries the accountant-general of the state who is known to stay more in the government house than anywhere else.
The calculations seem to be that if Fubara can be cracked, Wike would be in their hands. Wike himself, however, seems to be ahead of his traducers, fighting to cast irons around Fubara as the only safeguard for self. The thinking is that allowing Fubara into the hands of the EFCC may crumble under drilling and worms may crawl out in hundreds that may put many persons and the governor in water that is not very cold.
The big push to snatch Fubara was said to nearly succeed. The EFCC operatives were said to have monitored him from Port Harcourt to Abuja where they were said to have missed him. They allegedly laid final ambush at the PH airport but the target was said to have been prepared for it. Youths were made to position at same point and it became a brawl between the EFCC and ‘the boys’.
The EFCC operatives were said to have been beaten up. A statement by the Commission’s Wilson Uwujaren, Head, Media and Publicity, said operatives of the Port Harcourt Zonal Command were on Tuesday June 7, 2022 prevented from arresting Fubara, said to be a suspect under the watch-list of the Commission, by thugs who they said breached the security of the Port Harcourt Airport, Omagwa, Rivers State.
EFCC barks
The statement said the alleged armed thugs assaulted operatives of the Commission who he said demonstrated commendable restraint under extreme provocation. “The Commission condemns the blatant attempt to obstruct justice, warning that its civility should not be taken for granted.”
Wike strikes
Gov Wike seemed to rush the screening and swearing in of some of his commissioners and immediately directed the returning Attorney-General of the State and Commissioner for Justice, Zacchaeus Adangor, to write a strong-worded protest letter to the EFCC over what he called harassment of State’s PDP governorship candidate, Siminalaye Fubara.
The statement: “The protest letter to be written to EFCC, Gov Wike said, is predicated on the fact that, recently, its officers attempted to harass and intimidate Fubara, who before his emergence as the PDP governorship candidate, had served as the Accountant General of Rivers State.
“Gov Wike said EFCC needs to know that the era of impunity and flagrant disobedience to the rule of law is gone and his administration will not accept such behaviour.
“He maintained that the attempt to harass the State PDP candidate will not be accepted as the State government will not hesitate to charge the EFCC for contempt.
“Governor Wike explained that before now, the Rivers State government had gotten a subsisting court judgment against the EFCC that it cannot investigate the State finances or its officers. According to him, there is also another judgment against EFCC by the PDP governorship candidate to enforce his fundamental rights, which has not been set aside.
“Rivers State government had judgment against EFCC since 2007. The court said you (EFCC) has no business in the financial transactions of the (Rivers) State. EFCC has been struggling to set aside that judgment until now. They have not even appealed it.”
“Gov Wike noted that nobody will accept the use of EFCC at such political period to intimidate persons in order to achieve their skewed political goals.
“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.”
Arrow at Amaechi
Amaechi is no longer a minister, something Wike seems to appreciate deeply.
The government media statement signed by Kelvin Ebiri said: “Gov Wike further directed the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to commence diligent prosecution of the illegal financial dealings of the former Rivers State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Tonye Cole, Sahara Energy and others over the sale of state assets.
“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 judgment 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.”
“Governor Wike said there is need for Rivers people and the rest of the world to know what actually happened to the $50 million Dollar that disappeared from state’s account without a proof of business where it was deployed.
“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.”
Conclusion:
The fight between Amaechi and Wike which began as far back as 2012 when Wike began to stripe Amaechi of the PDP structure which forced the then sitting governor to decamp with his followers to the APC seems to enter its decisive stages.
At any point in time since then, each of the combatants has tried to be in office, either as minister or governor, in opposite direction.
This is the first time that one of them is not in office as Amaechi resigned as minister to fight for the presidency. Each seeks for the other to at least enter the prison. Could this be the time?
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