Appeal Court Voids Arrest Warrant On Amaechi, Cole, 4 Others

Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has set aside a warrant of arrest issued by a Rivers State High Court in a criminal suit filed by the state government against former governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and five others. Amaechi was the immediate past minister of transportation in the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Justice Chiwendu Nwogu of the Rivers State High Court had on May 17, 2023, issued a warrant of arrest against Amaechi as well as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Tonye Cole, former commissioner for energy, Augustine Wokocha and three others which was challenged at the Appeal Court.

The three-man panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, in a unanimous ruling on the application, said the Rivers State High Court was wrong to have proceeded in the matter when the process was already being challenged at the Appellate Court.

It was gathered that the three-man panel of the Appeal Court also set aside the warrant of arrest order issued against Amaechi and five others and faulted the process of effecting service on the defendants.

One of the counsels to Amaechi and other defendants, Achinike Williams Wobodo, said the ruling of the Appeal Court on the suit, “has put a stop to the illegality of the state government under former Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.”