ABUJA – The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on yesterday, called off consideration of petitions it received against the nomination of former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi.
The Sen. Samuel Anyanwu led Senate committee, after a brief meeting with Amaechi at the National Assembly, said the subject matter of the petition which is related to the white paper on a report of a Judicial Panel of Inquiry is already a subject of court case.
The former Rivers governor, who appeared before the committee in the company of his former Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari and two members of the House of Representatives, told the panelists that the matter upon which the committee invited him was pending before a court of competent jurisdiction.
At resumption of the hearing, the Committee chairman, Sen. Anyanwu, sought to know from Amaechi if the matter was awaiting court pronouncement, which the nominee responded in the affirmative.
Anyanwu after hearing from Amaechi noted that in line with Section 7 of the Senate Standing Rules, it would amount to sub-judice to consider the petition.
Recall that a group based in Port Harcourt, The Integrity Group, had forwarded a petition to the Senate, alleging financial impropriety against Amaechi with the aim of preventing him from being confirmed as minister.
The petitioners, who sent their petition to the Senate through Senator George Thompson Sekibo and two other Senators, claimed that Amaechi mismanaged N70 billion Rivers State funds.
