Tunji Adedeji
The Former House of Representatives Member and Ex – Imo state Government appointee, Hon.Uche Onyeagocha has accused Gov Rochas Okorocha and his family of allegedly looting N920Million under fictitious head of abandoned/road project against the people of Imo State, starting with Orlu, Oguta and Orsu LGAs.
Hon. Onyeagocha who made this disclosure on Thursday at the All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA , Secretariat, Egbu road, Owerri while declaring his intention to contest for the governorship seat of Imo state in 2019 under the platform of APGA.
In his words: “Gov. Rochas Okorocha used Agben Supplies Ventures with Reg. No IM10174 – a company wholly owned by one Prof. Anthony Anwuka of 5/6 Achike Udenwa Av., Owerri – which company, according to Corporate Affairs Commission, was registered on 29th Aug. 2013, to defraud your LGAs of a total of Nine Hundred and Twenty Million Naira (N920,000,000) under the fictitious head of Abandoned/Revoked Roads Projects. Every LGA was looted in like manner under this head and I shall reveal their details in due course”.
The governorship hopeful vowed that he would continue to reveal cold indisputable facts and figures, evidences of massive looting perpetrated by Gov. Okorocha and his family against the people of Imo State.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, he averred.
According to Onyeagocha, “in the past 7years we have seen Imo State brought into a state of hopelessness. People’s properties have been destroyed in the name of so called Urban Renewal without compensation. Civil servants have been paid less than their due salaries. Pensioners have been denied their emoluments. Markets have been destroyed at the peak of trading seasons. Displaced traders have fled to rural markets only to have their new stores demolished, also.
“Artisans and Keke operators have been impoverished via forced relocations. Standard of education has been debased under the guise of free education. Basic institutions such as hospitals have been destroyed without replacement while the governor continues to lie about none existing 27 general hospitals. Water has been taken away from people who cannot afford to have their own boreholes as there are no more existing city water schemes.
Our State is in serious trouble. The government of Ethelbert Okorocha is at war with our people. In the midst of this impoverishment and depression, our governor has been extremely corrupt, excessively greedy, plan-less and very dishonest while reducing governance to a family affair with an offensive self-succession agenda.
“I had earlier apologized to Ndi Imo for whatever role I played in the run-up to the 2015 Governorship Elections which brought Gov. Okorocha back to power for a second term. I found myself in the same party with him when my former party ACN (as one of the then Legacy Parties) merged with the defunct CPC and ANPP in 2014. Okorocha came along with a faction of APGA then. Our coming together was beyond my personal control.
“In all our campaigns at that time, he never promised traders in Ekeukwu Owere, artisans in the two mechanic villages, Auto dealers, businesses at the New Market, traders in Amaraku, Nworieubi, Orlu Hardware and other Markets, etc that he would destroy their means of livelihood and send many of them to their untimely deaths, if they voted Ethelbert Okorocha back into power. He courted pensioners and civil servants and did not promise them that he was coming to embezzle their pensions and salaries.
“When he met with Keke Operators, he assured them that he would strive to enhance their welfare. We pledged that we would protect and preserve the dignity of the human person and his property back then. He did not tell Ndi Owere that he would grab their lands, sell them to the highest bidders and share proceeds among the members of his family. We did not tell Ndi Imo to wave goodbye to monthly allocations to the LGAs.
“I am very certain that if Ethelbert Okorocha had revealed these and other inordinate desires of his heart at that time, he would not be Governor today. He would not have had my support for sure. He lied to all of us. Once again, for my role in making him governor in 2015, I sincerely apologize. All my life I have fought against hypocrisy, insincerity and official abuse. Through the mid 1980s to early 90s when General Babangida deceitfully elongated his transition program, I was there at the frontlines to challenge his fraud.”
“Fellow citizens of Imo State, I present myself to run for the position of Imo Governor 2019 conscious of all these anomalies just mentioned. It will not be an easy task but I believe that as your servant-leader we can get ourselves out of this mess. Under these critical times and circumstances, I hereby offer myself as aspirant for governor under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Given the opportunity, I promise to lead our people politically, economically, educationally and socially where they want to go” he concluded.
