By Onyekachi Eze
Immediate past governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha may be having more querry to answer over his leadership activities when he held sway as the State’s chief executive.
This followed a demand made by different groups in the State, during a peaceful demonstration yesterday to Government House, Owerri.
In a protest led by the leadership of the Association of Imo State Indigenous Town Unions, AISITU, in collaboration with Orluzurumee, Olu Owerri, Olu Okigwe, Amalgamation of Imo Professional Associations, AIPA, the students unions and the various youth groups in the State, they sought for a prompt action against the Rescue Mission administration of Rochas Okorocha for gross misconduct, misappropriation and high rate of executive rascality.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards read; “Olu Owerri demands recovery of government lands”; “#30b loot by Okorocha for uncompleted hospital building must be recovered”; “Imo Town Unions in conjunction with the 3 zonal socio-cultural groups want Okorocha probed”; “Eastern Palm University belongs to Imo State”; “Rochas Okorocha must be probed for looting Imo dry”, among others.
According to a press statement obtained by Trumpeta Newspaper, signed by the following; Chief Emeka Diwe (President General AISITU); Prof. Francis Dike SAN(Orlu Elders Council); Elder Chinyere Chukwukere (Secretary Orluzurumee); Chief Martins Opara (President General Olu Owerri); Chief Monday Ikoku (Olu Okigwe); Rev. Fr. Prof. Philip Ogbonna (Amalgamation of Imo Professional Bodies and Association); Lady Irene Ukanwa (Imo Town Unions Women Wing); Comr. Isidore Chukwuemeka (National Youth Council); and, Comr. Anyaoha Tochi Chibueze (NAIS President), they said, “During the ruinous misrule of Okorocha, Imo went through a sort of untold financial hemorrhage, as resources were frittered away and public assets looted and converted to private use”.
“As if that was not enough, Chief Okorocha so cruelly plunged the State into irredeemable debt slavery to the tune of over N200 billion, a debt stock that will remain unpayable even by ten generations unborn. Yet under the watch of Chief Okorocha, the bailout funds to Imo State inexplicably disappeared under the match of his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, and he neither budged nor stirred. Worse still, allocations to the twenty-seven local government areas of the State were hijacked and looted, and the system stifled and made moribund”.
Also having the floor, the spokesperson, Chief Emeka Diwe counted many alleged sins of the past administration.
Major part of the press release read, “The N21.6 billion taken from the local government system of the State by Okorocha; The Eastern Palm University built with our money but personalized by Okorocha. This University was approved by the Nigerian Universities Commission, NUC, as the 42nd State University. Before the previous Governor sought and got approval for the said university, he had acquired land with government instruments and built all the houses at the University premises for the relocation of the Imo State University to his Community, Ogboko, where the University is situated today, a plot we resisted, prompting him to jettison the idea of relocation to apply for license from NUC. Today, the former Governor goes around saying that Imo State has ten percent equity in the Eastern Pam University while his Rochas Foundation has ninety percent. We demand that this State owned university be recovered without further delay; The N96 billion being the stolen portion of Imo’s IGR for eight years;
Over N40 billion looted through the failed 27 general hospital projects; The Old IBC premises at Orji: Before now, everybody in Imo State knows that the Old Imo Broadcasting Corporation premises at Orji is a government land. The former Governor used his office as Governor to convert the asset to himself, after building gigantic blocks at the facility with government money. We request that this government property be recovered without further delay;
The Nekede and Orji Mechanic Villages:
We also wish to inform the public that the vast expanse of land occupied by the artisans and mechanics at the Nakede mechanic village as well as Orji Mechanic village was forcefully taken by the former Governor and given to his family members and cronies; Also, vast expanse of land on the Sam Mbakwe Airport road was acquired by the Government for the purpose of attracting a Naval Base. To our dismay, over seventy percent of the said land was converted to a personal estate by the former Governor. We demand the recovery of these and other lands without further delay; The Adapalm in Ohaji which Okorocha said was leased out to investors and left in ruins till date; The Concorde Hotels, an enviable investment of the State which was acquired by Okorocha through some proxies;
Westbrook Hotels which is linked to Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu; WODDI Wellness Center owned by Okorocha’s wife, Nkechi, built on the former Imo State Secretariat Annex, a land forcefully acquired from the State by Uche Nwosu as Commissioner for Lands; The Reach FM owned by Uche Nwosu, without any know legitimate means of owning such huge property; The multi billion Naira Farmers Market built by Geraldine, Okorocha’s sister, on a land belonging to the State; Over twenty-five plots State land acquired by Uche Nwosu upon which El Freeda Foundation was built. This is the Foundation through which billions of Naira have been laundered out of the State; Extevia Mega Supermarket opposite Civic Center Estate owned by Ogechi Ololo, Okorocha’s sister; Municipal Plaza owned by Nkechi Okorocha built on a land forcefully acquired from a civil servant by Uche Nwosu; Twitter Bites acquired by Geraldine Okorocha forcefully from Mr. Fans; Spibat Estate most of which land was forcefully taken from Mbieri people by Okorocha; House of Freeda Malls in Owerri, Abuja and Lagos built by Uloma, Uche Nwosu’s wife; A mighty poultry farm beside Shoprite owned by Uche Nwosu on a land forcefully acquired; A probe into the JPROS financial sleaze perpetrated in Okorocha’s first term; Recovery of over N800 million given to Okorocha’s sister, Geraldine per annum, for Christmas trees; Recovery of the N600 million diverted through the supposed renovation of the Imo State Secretariat; Recovery of the N18 billion looted through the alleged construction of primary school blocks across the State; Recovery of all the markets in the State which Okorocha has claimed 30% ownership; Recovery of the ISOPADEC funds and the 13% oil derivation funds which amount to over N20 billion; Recovery of the cardboard industry at Owerri-Ebeiri in Orlu; Recovery of the N2 billion diverted through the construction of the completely worthless Akachi Tower; A probe into and recovery of over N120 billion diverted through failed road projects. There is no single road project done by Okorocha that is not a failure; Recovery of hundreds of plots of land taken from the State by Okorocha and family, spread across the state; Recovery of Imo’s security votes which Okorocha personalized for eight years;
Recovery of the billions of Naira looted through the construction of deadly concrete beams on the roads and overhead iron projectiles, which serves no purpose while people are dying daily of hunger. These death traps should be dismantled;
Recovery of IRROMA equipment worth billions of Naira looted by Okorocha;
Recovery of ITC vehicles and investment looted by Okorocha, and many more loots;
High powered probe of all the billions wasted in the “supposed” infrastructural development of the new universities in the state, as none of the substandard buildings have been completed”.
Responding, the governor of Imo, Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha thanked them for an orderly demonstration.
The governor while assuring them of his administration’s firm resolve in following the tenets of the constitutional provisions said he would leave no stone unturned in doing the right thing for the overall interest of Imo people.
Chief Emeka Ihedioha also opined that as a government saddled with the rebuilding of Imo lost glory, he will deeply study the document and do the right thing to be done, hence urged them to continue in supporting the government thrive.
