A
abujagirl
Guest
Last Tuesday, the Rivers State Government Tuesday condemned the invasion of the state by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), describing it as an abuse of the judicial process and persecution of government officials.
Condemning the action of the EFCC, the Chief of Staff to the state governor, Chief Tony Okocha, said yesterday in Port Harcourt that although the Chibuike Amaechi-led administration was not afraid of being investigated, the anti-graft agency was deliberately trampling on judicial orders.
Chief Okocha faulted the EFCC for defying a subsisting court order that barred the commission from interrogating or investigating officials of the state. He further described the investigation as another phase of the federal government’s attempts at intimidating and persecuting the Rivers state government and its officials.
In a statement by Jerry Needam, Special Adviser, Media to the state’s PDP factional chairman, Felix Obuah, the PDP expressed concern about government spending since the onset of the political crisis in the state.
It urged the EFCC to “extend its tentacles to the accounts of the state House of Assembly which we suspect, has been hugely used as a conduit pipe to siphon state funds.”
It also called for the probe of the wife of the governor, Mrs. Judith Amaechi, and some council chairpersons over the funding of the first lady’s pet project, the Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI).
