Rivers state House of Assembly on Thursday passed a motion that had a prominent indigene of the state, Mr Celestine Omehia, derecognized as a former governor.
Omehia had served as governor of the state between 29 May 2007 and 25 October 2007.
‘In the eye of the law, the appellant (Amaechi) remains the candidate of the PDP and is deemed to have won the election and should be so sworn in immediately’ Aloysius Katsina-Alu, who read the unanimous decision of the seven-man panel of Supreme Court justices, had submitted on 25 October 2007.
Mr Rotimi Ameachi , who was then the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, had though won the PDP guber primary election ahead of the 2007 Rivers state gubernatorial election, the party however submitted Omehia’s name to INEC as substitute for Ameachi. Celestine Omehia, who is Ameachi’s cousin, was eventually declared as winner of the guber election.
Ameachi had consequently taken a legal action to oppose the decision taken by the party which eventually resulted in his court victory.
Whilst in office, Ameachi had refused to recognize Omehia as a former governor but Mr Nyesom Wike on becoming the governor had immediately taken steps to correct the situation and on June 30, 2015 , the state House of Assembly took necessary steps to have Omehia recognized as a former governor.
Speaker Ikwuinyi Ibani had noted that Omehia proclaimed the 6th Assembly as a governor and should therefore be recognized as a former governor.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned the house of assembly during a plenary session on Thursday however reversed its decision and declared that Omeiha should henceforth not be recognized as a former governor.
Omehia has also been asked to refund all monetary entitlements he had received as a governor amounting to N600 million within seven days.
He is also expected to return about N96.5 million he had received as pension and also cease to be addressed as His Excellency.
Omehia is one of the PDP bigwigs supporting former PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus against Governor Nyesom Wike.
He is also one of the party stalwarts asking the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to ignore Wike.
Many had leapt to conclusions that the action taken by the Rivers state House of Assembly on Thursday could be likened to the case of ‘the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob’-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you
