Rotimi Amaechi

Rotimi Amaechi served as Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly (1999-2007), two-term Governor of Rivers State (2007-2015, PDP then APC) and Federal Minister of Transportation under President Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023). After Amaechi's defection to APC in 2014, his successor Nyesom Wike commissioned the Justice George Omereji Judicial Commission of Inquiry in 2015 to probe alleged sale of state assets - gas turbines at Omoku/Afam/Trans-Amadi/Eleme, the Olympia Hotel, the Monorail project, and a $39.2m Karibi-Whyte hospital contract - and the alleged diversion of $50m to Sahara Energy. Amaechi refused to appear and went to court. The commission and a subsequent white paper indicted him; the Supreme Court on 27 May 2022 dismissed his challenge but ruled that the commission's findings had no legal force and that nobody was on trial. Rivers State filed criminal charges before the State High Court in Port Harcourt in 2022 (withdrawn October 2022 by Justice Okogbule Gbasam) and refiled fresh charges in January 2023 before Justice Chinwendu Nwogu over an alleged N96 billion fraud. Justice Nwogu issued a bench warrant on 17 May 2023 against Amaechi, Tonye Cole, former Energy Commissioner Augustine Wokocha and Sahara Energy Resources Ltd; the Court of Appeal Port Harcourt (panel led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh) set the warrant aside in June 2023. Separately, FCT Minister Wike alleged in July 2025 that an unpublished NDDC forensic audit indicts Amaechi and his wife Judith over alleged N4 billion-per-month payments to her NGO - allegations the Amaechis publicly denied. Amaechi has never been arraigned and no court has convicted him.