The Rivers State judicial commission of inquiry set up to investigate some financial transactions during the administration ofcan only investigate but has no powers to convict anyone, the Supreme Court ruled last Friday.
However, while the main ruling was against Mr Amaechi, a presidential aspirant of Nigeria’s ruling party, APC, the Supreme Court also declared that the commission had no power to convict Mr Amaechi or anyone else.In 2015, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe some transactions made by the Rivers government under Mr Amaechi, who was governor from 2007 to 2015.
“It is also our very view and we hold that the 3rd respondent is a fact-finding and an investigative body – a body exercising powers which are merely investigative in character and which do not have any legal force…” “If it rejects them, the matter ends there. If it accepts them and decides to take necessary action on the accepted recommendation, the white paper accepting the recommendation can be challenged in court,” the Supreme Court ruled.The Supreme Court further explained that the panel of inquiry can not be equated with a court or an investigative agency.
“The description of such body as a judicial commission of inquiry does not change its character from being a fact-finding body,” the Supreme Court said.Meanwhile, Mr Wike said on Friday that his predecessor, Mr Amaechi, transferred an unjustified $15 million of public funds to Sahara Energy when Mr Amaechi was Rivers governor.
The governor spoke hours after the Supreme Court judgement of Friday, which dismissed Mr Amaechi’s appeal challenging the existence of the Rivers State government’s judicial commission of inquiry. “You said Sahara Energy bought our gas turbines. If they bought our gas turbines, why are we paying them $15 million dollars? Did we borrow money from them? Where is the agreement to show that we borrowed money from them?” Mr Wike asked.