THE judicial commission of inquiry set up by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to look into the alleged sale of assets of state by the administration of former Governor Rotimi Amaechi has disclosed that former local council chairmen in the state diverted about N3 billion from the N4 billion agriculture loan granted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The commission made the disclosure during its maiden sitting in Port Harcourt, on Monday, even as its chairman, Justice George Omereji, assured Amaechi and others that the commission was not on a witch-hunt mission.
This was as the state former Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Emma Chinda, shunned the invitation sent to him to appear before the panel on Monday.
Counsel for the commission, Dr Zaccheus Adangor, reeled out the names of former commissioners and local council chairmen who benefited from the N4 billion loan.
Interrogating the permanent secretaries of the state ministries of Agriculture and Commerce and Industry, based on the memos they submitted to the commission, he said CBN loan meant to help develop the agriculture sector was shared among 380 mother cooperatives which had then served council chairmen as their presidents.
Adangor also disclosed that 38 of the cooperatives did not have any official documentation with the state Ministry of Commerce and Industry, adding that the loans, which were converted to grants, were disbursed without supervision.
He said as contained in a memorandum submitted by the former Commissioner for Agriculture, Amaechi, on January 25, 2015, approved the disbursement of N3 billion CBN loan to farmers as grants.
Adangor said, in a sharp contravention of the CBN guidelines, which specified that the loan was meant for development of agriculture in the state, the former governor disbursed the funds to the former council chairmen.
Giving a breakdown of how the money was shared, he said the memo submitted to the commission indicated that Asari Toru Cooperative Society, which had former Asari Toru Council chairman, Mr Flag Ojukaye Amachree, as its president was given N54,850,000 as grant.
According to him, the incumbent chairman of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Augustine Ahiamadu, on behalf of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni cooperatives, received N64,300,000.
The Port Harcourt Cooperative Society, under former Port Harcourt City Local Government chairman, Nnamdi Uche, he said, received N134,625,000, while the Omuda Integrated Fishing Cooperatives, whose president was the then chairman of Ogu/Bolo, Mr Mina Tende, received N32,175,000.
Adangor said a former chairman of Khana Local Government Area, Mr Derick Mene, received N70,373,000 on behalf of Meni Cooperative Society, while his counterpart from Ahoada East Local Government Area, Mr Cassidy Ikegbidi, got N39,325,000 on behalf of Ahoada cooperative society.
Testifying before the commission, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Tari Okoye, said she did not visit any of the beneficiaries to ascertain if the funds were deployed for the purpose and intent of the scheme.
She said her failure to visit the beneficiaries was because the former Commissioner for Agriculture had authorised a committee, presided over by a director in the ministry, Mr Grant Amadi, to oversee the disbursement, adding that the remaining N1 billion was meant for fish farms in Ubima, Andoni and Opobo.
Amadi, who is the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics in the ministry and also served as the chairman of the Agriculture Credit Committee, also appeared before the panel and admitted that he did not visit the farms because the ministry did not have operational vehicles for inspection.
Amadi said the committee had no terms of reference and all decisions of those who benefitted from the disbursement were taken by the former commissioner.
According to him, the former commissioner merely sent him the list of beneficiaries with the specific directive to instruct the banks to pay expeditiously to the benefiting cooperative societies.
He told the audience that no due diligence was carried out to ascertain those behind the cooperatives, claiming that he was hearing for the first time that the key beneficiaries of the grants were top politicians.
Asked if he ever made any attempt to verify if the grants were used for the purpose for which they were released, Amadi noted that he was directed not to venture into such endeavour.
He added that even if he had wanted to do so, the state Ministry of Agriculture had no functional vehicle under former Governor Rotimi Amaechi to carry out monitoring.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mrs Cordelia Peterside, revealed that 38 out of the 380 cooperatives did not have any form of documentation with her ministry.
She also told the commission that she was surprised that the loan was disbursed to serving politicians at that time.
Adangor informed the commission that the former Commissioner for Agriculture, Emma Chinda, was duly invited to testify, declaring that another invitation had been extended to him to appear before the commission today, failure which the commission would invoke its inherent powers in the State Commission of Inquiry law to compel him to appear before it.
Meanwhile, former Governor Rotimi Amaechi has, again, said he was opposed to and wanted to stop the judicial commission of inquiry because it was not constitutionally constituted.
The former governor, in a statement issued from his media office, on Sunday, said he was not afraid of “a fair and decent probe or investigation or inquiry of his administration.”
He said he would cooperate and support such probe or investigation or inquiry inasmuch as it was done within the ambits of laws.
“However what Wike has set out to do is anything but a fair probe. The commission will not be fair to Amaechi because it was set up to indict him.
“Wike had repeatedly held that Amaechi, the person to be investigated, acted illegally in the disbursement of public funds and that Amaechi ran a corrupt government.
“Clearly, Wike has prejudged the matter and showed his bias that Amaechi is guilty even before investigations.
“This means Wike, with his prejudice, has made up mind and taken a position of a guilty verdict even before the outcome is known or established,” the statement read.
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