successor birth_place office width birth_date term_start article_title term_end name
george thompson sekibo rivers state , nigeria senator for rivers east 150px january 1960 may 1999 john azuta-mbata
 may 2007 john azuta-mbata
john azuta-mbata

john azuta-mbata was elected senator for the rivers east constituency of rivers state , nigeria at the start of the nigerian fourth republic , running on the people 's democratic party -lrb- pdp -rrb- platform .
he took office on 29 may 1999 .
he was reelected in april 2003 .
azuta-mbata was born in january 1960 .
he earned a masters in public administration from the university of ibadan .
he was a member of the governing council of rivers state university of science & technology , port harcourt .
after taking his seat in the senate in june 1999 , he was appointed to committees on defense , works & housing , women affairs , finance & appropriation -lrb- vice chairman -rrb- , information , special projects and local & foreign debts .
in april 2005 the independent corrupt practices and other related offences commission -lrb- icpc -rrb- arraigned azuta-mbata and others for involvement in an alleged n55 million budget bribe scam .
also charged were former senate president adolphus wabara and former education minister fabian osuji .
they were said to have demanded , received and shared n55 million to facilitate the passage of education ministry 's budget .
after extended legal battles , on 1 june 2010 a full panel of the court of appeal in abuja quashed all the charges , discharged and acquitted the accused .
