Rivers APC to Wike: Provide Evidence of Investigation on Criminal Trial Against Amaechi, Cole

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The 2023 Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the state government led by Governor Nyesom Wike to provide evidence of investigation on the fresh criminal suit filed against former governor Chibuike Amaechi and Tonye Cole, governorship candidate of the party over state assets.

Recall that the same suit filed against Amaechi and Cole by Governor Wike was struck out by Justice Okogbule Gbasam of the state High Court in Port Harcourt, in October 2022, after the state Attorney-General withdrew the alleged criminal charges. 

However, the state government on Thursday, filed a fresh suit against the duo before Justice Chinwendu Nwogu of the state High Court in Port Harcourt.

When the matter was mentioned in court, the trial judge, Justice Nwogu urged the prosecuting counsel to serve the processes to all the parties in the matter and adjourned till January 19 for hearing.

Reacting to the new filed suit, the APC campaign council said that the development was targeted at distracting the mind of Rivers people from their support to Cole for the governorship position in 2023.

Spokesperson to the Rivers APC 2023 Campaign Council, Sogbeye Eli, who spoke to journalists yesterday in Port Harcourt, said “This vile politics embedded in propaganda is a plot to discourage Rivers people from voting for our candidate on the grounds that he would be convicted and sent to jail before the May 29, 2023 date of inauguration of the next governor of Rivers State.” 

Eli insisted that no amount of political propaganda can affect the victory of APC candidates in the state come March 11 this year.

He said, “The Rivers APC 2023 Campaign Council is constrained to react to the filing of fresh criminal charges at the High Court of Rivers State by the Government of Rivers State against our leader; a former governor of Rivers State and immediate past Minister of Transportation, His Excellency, The Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, and our 2023 governorship candidate, Arc. Tonye Cole.

“Prior to yesterday, media reports quoting the Honourable Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zacchaeus Adangor (SAN), were awash indicating that the State Government is back in court with the same criminal charges against Amaechi and Cole for alleged sale of state assets and withdrawal of N96 billion from the state’s treasury that were withdrawn last year in the case of State v. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi & 6 Ors in PHC/1818CR/2022 before Justice Okogbule Gbasam of the High Court of Rivers State. 

“With the collapse of the multiple cases contrived to disqualify and stop Tonye Cole, and the rest of our candidates for the 2023 general elections, we understand the frustration of Governor Nyesom Wike who is desperate to impose his surrogate as governor to succeed him. 

“However, this ill-fated quest to persecute Tonye Cole would end like the bankrolling of one Livingstone Wechie to run riot in the media and before the Senate with the same unsubstantiated fraud and corruption allegations calculated at stopping the appointment of Chubuike Rotimi Amaechi as a Minister in the Government of the Federation under President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.”

He continued that “This resumed trial is full of political sound and fury, signifying nothing. It is only calculated to play on the intelligence of Rivers people and the general public and cause further distractions to Tonye Cole, the APC and Rivers voters.

“At best it is a poor propaganda script which puts the Judiciary, a separate arm of the State Government, in very bad light as a vehicle available for political games and mischief. When we say that nothing has changed from the date the State Government withdrew the case in PHC/1818CR/2022 before Justice Gbasam to yesterday (Thursday), we mean that the Rivers State Government did not lodge a complaint with the Nigeria Police on the crimes alleged. Neither did the Police invite Amaechi and Cole for questioning on the allegations levelled against them nor any Police officer carry out investigations of the alleged crime.

“We have a duty therefore to sound it abundantly clear to Rivers people and followers of events in our state that the sensationalism of a resumption of the so-called trial is deliberately created by Wike’s PDP to cast doubts on the candidature of Tonye Cole and thereby disrupt the massive support the governorship candidate of the APC enjoys from the Rivers electorate ahead of the March 11, 2023 governorship elections.”

Eli cited the law that the prosecution of an accused person cannot proceed without evidence of police investigation of a complaint made to it before the court, adding that mere allegations are no legal evidence. 

He said, “By the same token, the other plank of Wike’s allegations on the sale of the state’s power assets and Hotel Olympia to Tonye Cole’s Sahara Energy Group without proof of fraud is a defamation of the character of our governorship candidate.”

The APC campaign council spokesperson stated that “Chubuike Rotimi Amaechi and Tonye Cole are innocent of the baseless allegations and we challenge Nyesom Wike to publish details of the accounts held by the Rivers State Government in various Banks prior to Amaechi’s departure from office on May 29, 2015 to highlight the alleged withdrawal. 

“We further challenge him to publish the transactions between the State Government under Amaechi and Sahara Energy to allow Rivers people and the general public make their own informed judgments on these allegations.” 

He said, “In the latter case, Wike should be prepared to face legal action for his defamatory outbursts on the persons of Chubuike Rotimi Amaechi and Tonye Cole after the constitutional immunity he enjoys expires upon leaving office on May 29, 2023.

“The Honourable Attorney-General of Rivers State is in a pole position to advise Wike that with no investigation of his allegations by the Nigeria Police, what they are embarking on is an expensive joke. This resumed trial, like its predecessor, has no place in our criminal jurisprudence.”

Eli urged their supporters across the state and party faithful to remain calm and resolute in their support for Cole and all APC candidates “as we drive the mission of liberation of our dear Rivers State to fruition. That is the task Rivers people must keep faith with as we further assure that nothing would emerge from the propaganda and dirty strategies of a confused government which delights in putting the people it was elected to serve through pains.”

He expressed hope that “the party shall overcome this one too and brace the tape of victory at the polls come March 11, 2023 with the active support of majority of Rivers voters.”