Governor Nyesom Wike, of Rivers State, on Friday signed a resolution from the State Assembly de-recognising Celestine Omehia as a former governor of the State.
Recall that the State lawmakers, on Thursday, passed a resolution to de-recognise Omehia as a former governor of the State and ordered him to refund over N600 million he got as entitlements from the Rivers State government.
Wike, a lawyer, said when he was informed of the lawmakers’ decision, he sought legal advice from the State’s Attorney-General, who he said told him that “in the first instance, the recognition was extra-judicial, that the Assembly has no power to change the judgment of any court, let alone (the) Supreme Court”. “Now they (lawmakers) have sent a resolution to me; without looking back, I have signed it as an instrument, and it would be gazetted for record purposes”, the governor affirmed.
Omehia became the governor of Rivers State briefly in May 2007 after Rotimi Amaechi, who won the governorship primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the election was denied the ticket by the then leadership of the party. The Supreme Court in October 2007 voided the PDP’s action, saying that Amaechi’s name was wrongly substituted with Omehia. The court sacked Omehia and directed that Amaechi be sworn-in as State governor.
Omehia, who hails from Ikwerre local government area, which is the same as Amaechi, was not recognised as ex-governor until June 2015 – a month after Wike, who is also of the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality, became the governor of the State. Although Wike and Omehia were political allies, they however, fell apart when the latter decided to support Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP for the 2023 elections against the wishes of Wike.
