The Rivers State Government has withdrawn and discontinued the two separate charges it filed against Caverton Helicopters pilots.
The charges were contained in charge sheet numbers PMC/532C/2020 and PMC/533C/2020, preferred against the two pilots of Caverton Helicopters Ltd and the 10 passengers on board before a Port Harcourt Chief Magistrates’ Court.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, in a statement, said that consequent upon withdrawal of the charges, the presiding Chief Magistrate D. D. Ihua-Maduenyi has struck out the two charges and discharged all the defendants.
The saga of Caverton helicopters started on Tuesday, April 7, when Wike, in the company of immediate past Commissioner of Police in the state, Mustapha Dandaura and others, arrested two Caverton Helicopters’ pilots and the passengers for flying into the state during coronavirus lockdown.
The two pilots, Samuel Ugorji and Samuel Buhari, were remanded at the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre but later kept at the Delta Hotel Port Harcourt before they were later granted bail by the court.