The Rivers House of Assembly, led by Martins Amaewhule, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate the River Electoral Chairman.

Mr Amaewhule, the speaker of the Rivers parliament, remarked during the plenary at the Assembly quarters complex in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

He said the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission chairman, Adolphus Enebeli, should be investigated for alleged misappropriation of the commission’s funds.

He said it is the duty of the parliament that enacted the commission’s law and set up the State Independent Electoral Commission to exercise oversight over it.

“It is not only constitutional but the convention the world over,” he said.

Mr Amaewhule said Mr Enebeli and the commissioners came before the parliament for screening and confirmation and admitted they would not live above the constitution or the Rivers’ law.

“Today, we are calling on them, and they are refusing to honour the summons of this August Assembly,” said the speaker.

Mr Amaewhule said it had become necessary for the parliament to invite the EFCC and ICPC to assist it in its investigative powers to determine how the commission spent funds.

He said the anti-graft commissions should also investigate how public funds were expended by the chairman, who is the chief accounting officer of the commission, in a manner that was unknown to the parliament.

Mr Amaewhule said there was no approval, budgetary allocation, or appropriation law, and billions of public funds went down the drain in futile actions.

He added that the parliament had agreed to invite the bankers to the RSIEC to produce the commission’s bank statements from January 1, 2024, to date.

(NAN)