Amaechi: My probe has a predetermined agenda

Chibuike Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, says he is opposed to his probe by his successor because there is a predetermined agenda to indict him.

A court ruled last week that Nyesom Wike, the Rivers governor, was right to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe his predecessor.

In a press statement from his media office, Amaechi said he is not opposed to a “fair and decent probe” and would cooperate and support such probe if it is done within “the ambit of our laws”.

“However what Wike has set out to do is anything but a fair probe. The commission will not be fair to Amaechi because it was set up to indict him. Wike had repeatedly held that Amaechi, the person to be investigated, acted illegally in the disbursement of public funds and that Amaechi ran a corrupt government,” the statement read.

“Clearly, Wike has prejudged the matter and showed his bias that Amaechi is guilty even before investigations. This means Wike, with his prejudiced, made up mind has taken a position of a guilty verdict even before the outcome is known or established. The same Wike who had adjudged the yet-to-be-investigated conduct of Amaechi as illegal and Amaechi as corrupt, is the same person that has gone ahead to set up a commission of inquiry and will have the final say on the findings of the commission. What a sham!

“This bias and predetermined agenda to indict Amaechi is obvious even in the terms of reference of the commission. In one of the defective terms of reference, Wike said the Commission should investigate the circumstances that led to the ‘sale of the state Hotel Olympia’. With a fair and decent probe, the Inquiry should have been ‘to examine (or investigate) the transaction concerning Hotel Olympia’.

“The difference is so clear: In the former, jaundiced Wike’s Term of Reference, it has been prejudiced and concluded that the Hotel was sold, while in the latter, the Inquiry is open and fair, and may lead to a finding of a sale or a lease or even a gift or even a pledge. Now, having so concluded that Hotel Olympia was sold, would Wike be decent and humble enough to reverse himself if documents showed it was never sold but concessioned or leased?

“This is one of the dangers of Wike’s commission that harbours a predetermined outcome in the name of an Inquiry and Amaechi will not subject himself to Wike’s deceit and phony shenanigans. Hotel Olympia was never sold. The hotel was only concessioned (or leased) on the approval of the State Executive Council and not sold.”