On Tuesday, Rotimi Amaechi and two other people were the subject of an arrest warrant quashed by the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for governor in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, and Austine Wokocha, who served as the state’s commissioner for power under Amaechi’s government, among the other individuals that were impacted.
Amaechi and others appealed the state High Court’s ruling, and the appellate court handed down its decision.
On May 17, while making a decision in a criminal matter brought by the state government, Justice Chiwendu Nwogu of the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt ordered the arrest of the three individuals.
The government had in the suit challenged the Amaechi administration’s decision to sell the state’s assets including the gas turbines to Sahara Energy, a company owned by Cole.
At Tuesday’s proceeding, two out of the three-member panel of the appeal court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh agreed that the order be set aside while the third one declined.
Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri, who read the ruling, said the lower court order was made in defiance of the appellate court.
He said the court gave the order at a time Amaechi had challenged at the appeal court, the service of information on him pursuant to Section 313 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law in the state.