Two Rivers courts fire-bombed

The political crisis rocking Rivers State took another dimension yesterday when unidentified people fire-bombed two high courts, aborting a sitting on a sensitive suit and destroying case files.Both the Ahoada High Court and Okehi High Court are handling political cases involving interests backed by Governor Rotimi Amaechi on the one hand and Presidency foot soldiers […]

The political crisis rocking Rivers State took another dimension yesterday when unidentified people fire-bombed two high courts, aborting a sitting on a sensitive suit and destroying case files.
Both the Ahoada High Court and Okehi High Court are handling political cases involving interests backed by Governor Rotimi Amaechi on the one hand and Presidency foot soldiers on the other.
In Ahoada, two improvised explosive devices were hurled into the court premises in the early hours of yesterday.
One of them exploded and ignited fire that affected parts of the court buildings, witnesses and authorities said.
Witnesses said one of the devices exploded at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) building within the court premises and razed down part of it, while the other one was found close to the high court building and defused by the police.
No casualty was recorded in the incident, but the court could not sit yesterday because of the attack.
The Ahoada High Court, presided over by Justice Charles Wali, was scheduled to sit over a case instituted by speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Dan Amachree, and 24 other members against the six rebel lawmakers led by Mr. Evans Bipi.
Bipi had claimed the speakership last year, and is leading a group of legislators opposed to Governor Amaechi.
They are believed to be supported by Amaechi’s political rival, Education Minister Nyesom Wike, who enjoys the backing of the Presidency.
The court had on December 16 issued an interim injunction restraining Bipi from parading himself as the speaker.
The case was to come up yesterday when the explosion happened.
This was the second time an explosion would happen at the court premises, but yesterday’s incident was significant because it happened just hours before the court was due to sit on the lawmakers’ case.
Early last month, a devise suspected to be dynamite exploded at the court’s garage.
In the other incident yesterday at the Okehi High Court in Etche local government area, an arson attack was reported at the court premises.
A source at the court told our reporter that all the vital case files and other important documents were destroyed by the fire.
The Okehi High Court in 2012 handled the case of leadership dispute in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) between Chief Godspower Ake and Mr. Felix Obuah.
The court declared that the authentic party chairman was Ake, who is backed by Wike and the PDP national headquarters.
The Rivers State police command yesterday confirmed the Ahoada incident but said it was a minor attack that could not have caused any serious damage.
In a statement in Port Harcourt, spokesman for the command Mr. Ahmad K. Muhammad, said “We received a report that an object suspected to be explosive was sighted at the premises of High Court, Ahoada. Our team of Anti Bomb Squad were despatched to make it safe.
“Their findings reveal through its technical operation one unexploded IED was recovered and rendered safe while traces of an exploded IED was identified.
“At the end of the operation, it was established that two IEDs were thrown in to the premises from outside, the two were initiated but one went off while the other failed to go off due to technical error. The exploded IED caused minor damages to the court building. Neither injury nor death was recorded.
“Considering strength of the materials used in making the devices, the devices are very weak and cannot cause severe harm but to make noise and not to pull down the building or cause death. Investigation into the incident has commenced with view of apprehending the perpetrators.”
Blame game
Meanwhile, the state government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) played the blame game with the PDP yesterday over the court incidents.
Speaking at a news conference, Information Commissioner Ibim Semenitari blamed the attacks on the Bipi group and their backers.
“We have established that at about 2am yesterday an explosion was heard around Ahoada court premises. When the lawyers got to court this morning they discovered that the NBA premises had been bombed. They also discovered two undetonated bombs,” she said.
“At Okehi it was files that were gathered together and set ablaze. Sensitive political cases have been handled by these courts.”
State Attorney General Wogu Bombs, for his part, said the bombing of Ahoada court and the arson at Okehi were a calculated attempt to put fear on the judiciary and the people.
He called on the Federal Government to regard Rivers as part of states that should be protected by the police.
The Rivers State chapter of APC also said the Ahoada and Okehi attacks were executed by those who were not comfortable with the ruling of Justice Charles Wali barring Bipi from parading himself as speaker.
“It is on record that the Rivers State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) sponsored by Chief Nyesom Wike, the Supervising Minister of Education, has over the time condemned this ruling of the Ahoada East High Court because it threw a spanner in its plot to use the rebel lawmakers led by Bipi to impeach Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in a House of 32 members,” said Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a spokesman for the APC chairman in the state.
But in its response, the Rivers chapter of PDP blamed the state government for the bombing of Ahoada court, saying it was aimed at disrupting the court process that would have vacated the earlier injunction on the factional speaker.
Jerry Needam, a spokesman for the PDP chairman, said also that the attack was to create a state of insecurity to justify the call for the removal of the police commissioner.
In a statement, Needam said the “bombing was carried out by agents of the Rivers State Government to prevent the court from sitting, so that the court would not be able to vacate the interim order made by the Ahoada High Court Judge, Hon Justice Charles Wali, who has turned his court to a ministerial department of the Rivers State Governor’s office to issue all manners of orders, injunctions and judgements in favour of his paymaster, Governor Rotimi Amaechi and subvert the course of justice.
“Their aim also of bombing the Ahoada High Court is to further create a state of insecurity in Rivers State, to justify their continuous call for the removal of the State Commissioner of Police.”
Needam said the interim order issued by Justice Wali lasted for only seven days and had therefore expired.