A mild drama occurred on the floor of the Senate yesterday when a petition against the former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, was to be tabled on behalf of a group from the state by Senator George Sekibo (PDP Rivers East).
Sekibo had in line with the Senate tradition raised Order 41 of the Senate Standing Rules to present a petition from some of his constituents.
But the moment he mentioned that the petition written by a group called The Integrity Group from Rivers State was against Rotimi Amaechi, one of the ministerial nominees to be screened by the Senate next Tuesday, all the APC senators spontaneously tried to shout him down, while their PDP counterparts fired back that he should be allowed.
The fireworks between senators across party divides over the petition continued when the Senate president, Bukola Saraki asked Sekibo whether issues raised in the petition against Amaechi are being litigated upon in the court or not, to which the APC senators shouted Yes, while the PDP senators shouted No!
He then asked Sekibo to lay the petition before the Senate and forwarded it to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition to look into it very critically and report back to the Senate.
The Integrity Group in the voluminous petition signed by one Livingstone Wechie, requested the Senate to reject the nomination of Rotimi Amaechi as a minister on the grounds of alleged corruption, criminal breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and conversion of over N70billion of Rivers people’s money when he served as executive governor of the state between 2007 and 2015.
According to the group, details of the N70billion allegedly stolen by Amaechi as executive governor of the state have already been forwarded to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission ( ICPC) for the needed investigation and prosecution.
The group added that all efforts made so far to recover or get Amaechi to account for or explain to Rivers people the whereabouts of the over N70billion allegedly embezzled by him have been resisted with impunity.
They further said that their move against Amaechi is without prejudice and any form of political motivation as being alluded to by mischief makers, saying “we shall not relent and we will stop at nothing to support the Nigerian Senate and the National Assembly in the fight against corruption, particularly in ensuring that anyone, no matter how highly placed, is brought to justice”.
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A petition of an allegations of corruption against a former who is yet to be arraigned before a competent court is brought to the House of Senate under the leadership of a Senate President who had already been arraigned and dock under a competent court of law. Isn’t there something wrong with our thought process in this country?
The senators that are to screen the ministerial nominees are they free from corruption?. Birds of the same feather!. Thieves accusing others thieves. The senate president, Akpabio, Jeremiah Useni, etc are all claiming to be innocent, what a nation!.
Seriously, curruption in the land is so much that we all have to fight it with everything in our possesion. But we have to do it right so we can get it right. I wish the senate smooth screening excercise. God bless us all.