Celestine Omehia: Fall of a Mangrove Giant
* Wike endorses de-recognition of Omehia as a state governor;
* Motion of the State House of Assembly that stripped him naked;
* What Supreme Court said of Omehia in his case against Amaechi in 2007;
Governor Nyesom Wike Friday, signed the instrument proposed by the Rivers State House of Assembly de-recognizing Chief Celestine Omehia as a state governor.Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has endorsed an instrument forwarded by the House of Assembly stripping Sir Celestine Omehia of his recognition as a one-time Governor of Rivers State.
Governor Nyesom Wike signed the document Friday afternoon in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Thursday, 6th October, 2022, the State House of Assembly entertained a motion.
It was presented by Hon. Amaewhule Martin Chike representing Obio-Akpor State Constituency 1(please see copy of motion below) :
Amaewhule’s motion urged the House to reverse an earlier decision taken by it which accorded Sir Celestine the status of a former Governor of Rivers State.
Recall that the motion endorsed to Governor Wike years ago by the State House of Assembly compelled the State Government to extend the payment of entitlements accruable to former Governors to Omehia.
Following Wike’s endorsement of the instrument of de-recognition, Omehia, a lawyer and a one-time aide to Dr Peter Odili, former Governor of Rivers State has been stripped of his honour.
Among other things, he shall neither parade as a former Governor nor enjoy the right to be so addressed.
Similarly, it would mean pictures portraying him as a governor shall be removed from public places, and his name as a former Governor of Rivers State struck out from public records.
In the meantime, Omehia has seven days to refund homongus sums of money collected from the coffers of the Rivers State Government as entitlements.
His fall from grace to grass is generating all kinds of reaction in the court of public opinion.
While some say it is vengeance taking too far, others insist it was wrong for him to back stab someone who had gone to all length to restore his integrity.
Yet, there are those who reckon it was right for Rivers the State House of Assembly to stand with the ruling of the Supreme Court delivered in 2007.
The Supreme Court held in a landmark case which restored Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to power that Omehia did not exist in the eyes of the law despite spending six months in office as governor.
Omehia, the record shows, did not take part in the state primaries of the PDP which preceded the 2007 gubernatorial election in Rivers State.