Wike suspends Rivers finance commissioner, accountant-general

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has ordered the immediate suspension of the State Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Fred Kpakol and the Accountant-General, Mr. Abere Dagogo. The governor announced the indefinite suspension of Kpakol and Dagogo on Friday through his Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu.

Wike said in the two-paragraph statement that the suspension would take immediate effect.

No reason was, however, given for the suspension of the finance commissioner and the accountant-general.

The statement from the Government House, Port Harcourt, read, “Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has suspended the State Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Fred Kpakol and the State Accountant-General, Sir Abere Dagogo. The suspension takes immediate effect.”

Effort to get the reason behind the governor’s action proved futile as a Government House official, who does not want his name mentioned, said no reason had yet been given.

Meanwhile , there are indications that Wike and the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, are still at war over the allegation that the latter used the sum of $150m belonging to the state to fund the All Progressives Congress.

Wike had during a thanksgiving programme alleged that Amaechi used the said amount to sponsor APC’s election campaigns.

Though Amaechi had challenged Wike to prove the $150m fraud allegation against him, the governor said on Friday that he had documents and files to prove his claim.

Wike, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr. Austin Tam-George, said he could not speculate on figures if he did not have the facts.

He explained that those who stole from the state’s coffers would be prosecuted, adding that the court would decide what punitive measures would be handed down to them.

He said, “We have raised a Judicial Panel of Enquiry and they asked how the resources of the state were managed. On the $150m that was used to sponsor APC elections, the governor does not speak in speculative terms.

“When the governor and other government officials speak, we do so based on existing documents and files before us. He (Wike) has access to the files.

“We have records of withdrawals made and we have records of monies spent. Some officials of the previous administration were signatories to these accounts. The truth is that when we talk about these figures, we don’t speculate.”

But Amaechi said in a statement exclusively made available to Saturday PUNCH that since he was not guilty of the allegation, there was no way Wike would have documents and files of fraud against him.

The statement, which came from the media office of the former governor, challenged Wike to produce any document or file that indicated that he funded APC with $150m.

It said, “It’s a shame that Wike administration officials are still mouthing ‘we have documents, we have documents’, and when you challenge them to provide these documents, they will go silent for a while and then throw up in the media another fresh concocted tale of phantom billions of naira purportedly stolen by former governor Amaechi.

“Since they are saying they have documents, tell them to show you the documents to prove their reckless, spurious claims that Amaechi took $150m of Rivers State money to fund the APC.” Amaechi argued that such amount of money could not have left the state coffers without a paper trail, even as he insisted that Wike should provide proof or keep quiet.

He said, “Anything short of providing verifiable documentary evidence of the movement of the money from the Rivers State Government coffers to sponsor the APC is an assault on the sensibilities of Rivers people and Nigerians. This is not a joke. Governance is serious business.”