A high court in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital, has issued a bench warrant against former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi; Rivers State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress at the 2023 election, Patrick Tonye-Cole; and former Commissioner for Energy, Augustine Wokocha.
Gatekeepers News reports that the presiding Judge, Justice Chiwendu Nwogu, also issued a bench warrant on Chamberlain Peterside, Sahara Energy Resources Limited, NG Powers-HPS Limited, and Cenpropsaroten Management Limited.
The development follows their failure to appear before the court on Rivers State Government’s criminal charges against them.
The Rivers government filed a fresh lawsuit on misappropriation of public funds against Amaechi during his tenure as governor of the state from 2007 to 2015
The State Governor, Nyesom Wike had set up a seven-man panel in 2022 to probe Amaechi over an alleged withdrawal of N96 billion from the treasury during his tenure as governor.
The panel had also investigated issues surrounding the “sale of assets” by the former governor.
The listed valuable assets are Omoku Gas Turbine, Afam Gas Turbine, Trans Amadi Gas Turbine, Eleme Gas Turbine, Olympia Hotel, and the contract award for the execution of the monorail project.
The panel submitted its report in 2015, while Amaechi has insisted that he is not guilty of fraud.
However, on May 27, 2022, the supreme court dismissed an application by Amaechi, challenging the probe.
Wike said criminal charges were filed against the former governor, as well as Sahara Energy, a firm indicted in the deals.
When the matter came up for plea, counsels for the defendants unanimously informed the court of their motion on non-service of court processes, but the presiding judge insisted on issuing the bench warrant.
The trial judge refused to hear the motion by the defendants and adjourned the matter until July 5th, 2023.
