Rivers PDP bars Amaechi, 27 lawmakers from audit

Posted by admin Headlines, Rivers, State News Thursday, August 22nd, 2013

THE Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State has barred Governor Rotimi Amaechi, and the 27 pro-Amaechi members of the State House of Assembly from the performance appraisal that commenced on Thursday.

The state PDP executive members, had, few weeks after being sworn in, set up a Committee on Performance Evaluation of its members holding political offices.

Surprisingly, the party commenced the exercise that would end on Saturday, without inviting the governor and 27 out of the 32 state lawmakers.

Speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the Chairman of the State Performance Evaluation Committee, Mr. Osinakachukwu Ideozu, explained that the governor and the members of the House of Assembly loyal to him would not be part of the exercise.

Ideozu said the exclusion of Amaechi and the lawmakers’ was due to their suspension from the party.

He said the exercise would have been held earlier but that the governor had taken the party to court to stop the performance evaluation of its members.

“The reason for excluding these persons is simple. The governor and 27 members of the State House of Assembly are suspended from the party and so can’t be invited.

“This exercise would have been held earlier, but the governor took the party to court to stop our work. We are starting now because a High Court struck out the suit on Tuesday.

“Those to appear before us include the state deputy governor, all senators and members of the House of Representatives currently representing Rivers State in the National Assembly, the five members of the state assembly who are not under suspension and all council chairmen in the state,” Ideozu said.

Others, according to the Evaluation Committee chairman, are former National Organising Secretary of PDP, Uche Secondus; former Deputy National Chairman, Sam Sam Jaja; current state PDP Chairman, Felix Obuah; and PDP ministers and commissioners currently serving.

Meanwhile, an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court on Thursday granted bail to two Amaechi’s loyalists who were accused by the police of instigating civil disturbances in the state.

The Amaechi loyalists – Charles Amaefule, who is the chairman of the PDP in Omuma Local Government Area of Rivers State, and Godwin Onwukwe – were accused of conspiring with one Leo Anyanwu, said to be at large, to announce on two radio stations that the party executive council in the state had been dissolved and reconstituted, and that Amaefule had been elected as the new chairman.

The police said the alleged action resulted in the breakdown of law and order in the state, but Amaefule and Onwukwe denied the charge when they were arraigned before the court on Tuesday.

Their lawyer, Ms Regina Okotie-Eboh, had moved an oral application for their bail immediately after the arraignment, but prosecuting counsel, Usman Jibrin, asked the court to refuse the accused persons bail on the grounds that they did not depose to any affidavit while making the request.

Ruling on the bail application was scheduled for 9:00 am but it eventually commenced around 5pm after Chief Magistrate Babashani Abubakar had stood the matter down for several hours.

The Chief Magistrate held that the court had the discretion to grant the accused persons bail, even when the request for such was made in the form of an oral application.

He therefore granted Amaefule and Onwukwe bail in the sum of N1m each and two sureties in like sum.

The sureties must be civil servants of the rank of Level 12, who are resident in the Federal Capital Territory.

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