Amaechi, Cole, 5 others receive pardon

Former Governor of Rivers State Chibuike Amaechi and the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Tonye Cole, can now go about their daily activities without looking over their shoulders as the Rivers State Government withdraws criminal charges filed against them.

The State Government had filed a criminal suit accusing them of selling government assets and diverting the proceeds valued at about N96 billions of Naira during Amaechi’s tenure as the state Governor

Our correspondent reports that when the case resumed for ruling on the legality of a private lawyer to prosecute the matter, the lawyer to the State Government and the Attorney-General of the State and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Zaccheus Adangor informed the court that he was withdrawing the suit.

But in his reaction, the lawyer to the APC, Amaechi and Cole contended that withdrawing the suit was an abuse of Court process and prayed the judge to dismiss the criminal charges if the suit must be withdrawn.

Delivering Judgment, Justice Okogbule Gbasam, after listening to a heated arguments, struck out the suit and the charges against the APC and 5 others.

Justice Gbasam said the plaintiff has right to discontinued with the matter.

Speaking to journalists outside the court room, one of the counsels to the defendants, Achi Wobodo, said they demanded that the Court should dismiss the charges instead of striking it out.

The Rivers State government had filed the criminal suit against Amaechi, Cole and five others over alleged illegal sales of government assets that ran into several billions of naira.

However, Amaechi, Cole and others have repeatedly denied the charges

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