The Rivers state commissioner for housing, Emma Okah , has dismissed the insinuation by former governor, Rotimi Amaechi, that Governor Nyesom Wike’s probe into his administration is as an attempt to witch hunt and ridicule his person.
Amaechi had few days ago reacted to the a judicial commission of inquiry set up by Wike to probe his tenure as governor. He described the move as a fraudulent witch hunt of his administration.
The commissioner said that there is nothing fraudulent or wrong to ask an administration that received and managed N3trillion on behalf of the Rivers state people to explain some of its actions that are suspected to be fraudulent.
“The people have the right to know. The Nyesom Wike administration is merely protecting the people’s interest by inquiring into how public resources were wasted, stolen or misappropriated by the past administration and every lover of democracy and rule of law should not complain, blackmail the state government or divert attention from that,” he queried.Okah maintained that Amaechi should not be afraid of anything if he knows that his hands are clean saying that all he has to do is to come when invited by the commission of inquiry to explain his side of the story and present documents to backup his claims.He stated Wike’s government would not turn blind eyes to grave allegations of misappropriation of fund against Amaechi’s government.
“Is it proper for Amaechi to sell off 70 per cent of the Rivers State Government’s interests in the state’s four power stations (Eleme, Omoku, Afam and Trans Amadi, Port Harcourt) at the cost of $302,400m and the entire money was withdrawn between December 2014 and April 2015 without any document of transaction or payment into any government account.
“Who owns the Bureau de Change Company that received the money and who authorised the receipt and where is the money?
“Is it a witch-hunt for Amaechi to pay out $39m to his cronies for the purpose of building the Karibi Whyte Mega Hospital and till today, not a single block is standing?” he asked.
It will be recalled that Governor Wike had vowed to carry out a forensic audit of all government accounts once he was sworn-in as governor.
