Even as the Imo State governor has responded to a petition by a Human Right Advocacy group, the Socio- Economic Right and Accountability Project, (SERAP), asking that the activities of the governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha be probed, the amount used for the erection of unveiled statues so far is still shrouded in secrecy.
SERAP had in an earlier publication made public to newsmen, claimed that it has written a petition to various anti graft bodies seeking for the probe of the governor over the statues of Presidents Jacob Zuma and Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of South Africa and Liberia respectively. The basis of the group’s petition was based on their allegation that the statues “might cost N1billion and added that the statues might have been funded with public funds”
But in a swift response after the SERAP position dominated the media waves, Okorocha while taking a swipe at the group for “passing a judgment” that “the statues might have cost N1billion” failed to name the cost of erecting the statues.
The two Presidents during their visits were honoured with a road name after them including statues mounted at the Imo Hall of Fame area on Concorde Road, New Owerri.
In a statement Okorocha made and sent to media houses including Trumpeta, the governor through his media aide said that he subscribes to the SERAP’s call for a probe. “We welcome the call. Our only concern is that SERAP contradicted itself by also passing judgments. It would have stopped at the call for probe to show they meant well. But they went ahead to pass judgments and thereby jeopardizing what should have their innocent call for probe”.
Moreso, Okorocha was ambiguous in terms of the cost as the statement was not emphatic if was built by the state government or from private purse in a public centre during a state event as suggested in the following argument. “Again, what if at the end of the probes, it is discovered that the statues were not funded from government’s purse, when SERAP had already talked about “Apparent misuse of public resources?
The governor’s statement while stating the essence of the visits failed to name the cost price of each of the statues he has officially unveiled said he “Right from the outset, we had given indications on the purpose of the coming of these great leaders and who invited them. We had that Correspondences. And if SERAP had meant to do a good Job, they would have resolved the issue of invitations and their contents, to ascertain whether they came on the invitation of the government or the Rochas Foundation College of Africa. The language of SERAP obviously would not have been the same if they had taken that step”.
Trumpeta however discovered that while the statement labored to debunk the position of SERAP and justify reasons for the visit, it continued to keep quick how the statues came about and the cost implication which the advocacy group pegged at an estimated N1b.
