The
immediate past governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, has filed a suit at
an Abuja High court against the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,
its chairman, Felix Obuah, and two others, over allegations of foreign accounts
ownership and embezzlement against him.
The
governor is seeking from the party and its officials N300 billion for general
damages done to him and defamation of his character, reputation and person.
The
PDP had in a statement in August alleged that Mr. Amaechi stole $757million
(N80 billion) of Rivers State public funds and stashed them away in an account
in his name in Bancorp Bank in Minnesota, United States of America.
It
also alleged that the former governor embezzled millions of dollars of Rivers
State money and stashed the money in other foreign accounts in his name,
including in a bank in Switzerland.
The
party said Mr. Amaechi’s foreign accounts were revealed and blown open by
Christiane Amanpour of America’s CNN and alleged that Bancorp Bank wrote
President Muhammadu Buhari intimating him that part of the funds was to be used
to purchase a residence for the former governor in the US and that it (Bancorp
Bank) planned to return the stolen funds to Nigeria.
In
the suit, Mr. Amaechi stated that each of the said publications by the PDP and
its officials “are untrue, false, motivated by ill-will and without any
foundations in truth whatsoever.”
He
said that they “made the said libellous publications after the party failed the
March 28 presidential election and with a view to rubbishing him in the eyes of
right thinking members of the society and the persons to whom the said
libellous publications have been made.”
In
his statement of claims in the suit, Mr. Amaechi said he did not steal the
state’s funds neither did he stash them away in Bancorp Bank in the US or in a
Swiss bank.
According
to him, the US bank did not at any time reveal that he embezzled or
misappropriated or connived in the embezzlement and misappropriation of monies
meant for Rivers State people and stashed them away in his name...
-Premium Times
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