No Case to answer ~Court
An Appeal Court in Abuja has quashed all the charges brought against the Chief of Staff to the Governor of the Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Ruling on the matter before it, the court held that there were no principal witnesses in the case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Commission had leveled criminal allegations against the Chief of Staff which included money laundering, and threatened to freeze the account of the State Government, a development that had attracted the anger of the Governor, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
Prior to the judgment of the court, the Governor had at the Nigerian Bar Association National Executive Committee meeting in Port Harcourt warned the commission that the power to vet the State account rests with the State House of Assembly.
He said the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Michael Aondoakaa and the chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri though lawyers did not abide by the rule of law.
The Governor said even if a judgment was defective, it subsists until set aside by a court of superior jurisdiction.
Governor Amaechi said: “One of the principal offenders in this regard is the EFCC.
EFCC was set up by an Act of the law of this country and it cannot act outside the law. There is a judgment of the Federal High court that says EFCC cannot investigate the account of the state.”
He said what EFCC was doing was to take people to courts of public opinion where they are condemned before they even face the law, pointing out that an accused is presumed innocent until otherwise proved.
The Telegraph gathered that there were widespread jubilations in Abuja and Port Harcourt as the news spread.
For the Amaechi administration, it was a monumental victory and a clear vindication of its position anchored on the law that respect for due processes would help the nation's credentials as an emerging democracy.
For a government which set out to pursue a path of transparency and accountability, Wike's victory has left its integrity intact in the public eye and humbled the faceless persons who may have perfected the plot to petition the EFCC and spark off a chain of reactions in the polity.
