Senate Committee suspends petition against Amaechi

Reprieve may have already started coming the way of the former Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, as the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public petitions on Monday announced the suspension of the petition brought against him.

The former Governor and another embattled nominee, Amina Ibrahim, had earlier in the day appeared before the Senate Committee to respond to the petitions against them ahead of their screening on Tuesday.

Mrs. Ibrahim used the appearance to clear the air regarding the ruckus generated by those who thought she was nominated to represent Kaduna State where she is married to.

She said her nomination was to represent Gombe State.

On his part, Amaechi’s appearance was to respond to allegations of looting and fraud brought in a petition to the upper chamber last Tuesday by three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators from the state.

In the petition, George Sekibo (Rivers East‎), had argued on behalf of other Rivers senators that the nomination of Amaechi as a minister was questionable, owing to the fact that he was accused of looting N70 billion of Rivers’ funds.

The senators, who are seeking to stop Amaechi’s confirmation by the senate, argued that when the former governor ‎becomes a minister, it would be difficult to make him face charges for the alleged offences.

But Amaechi in his brief address to the Senate Committee said the allegations in the petition before the Upper Chamber‎ were already being challenged in court.

His appearance at the committee only lasted a few minutes, as the matter was suspended abruptly.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, ruled afterwards that‎ since the issues in contention were already before the court, it would be sub judice for the senate to entertain them. He held that the senate would allow the court to handle the matter.

Amaechi consequently thanked the committee and left.

By: Sylvester Ugwuanyi