By Okey Alozie.
The Director Imo State Fire Service, Mr Japhet P.C Okoroafor is said to be in serious trouble for alleged involvement in contempt of court. Our reporter gathered that the Director is yet to appear before the Judicial Panel of Inquiry sitting at High Court nine (9), Owerri on Monday 13th of July 2020.
The Chairman of the probe panel, Justice Benjamin Iheka who raised eyebrows on the absence of the Director decleared that “Mr Japhet is supposed to obey the law by appearing on or before 10am Monday and since he is not present, this amounts to court contempt but we have to give him serious warning and in the next adjournment coming up in few days time, we shall not be merciful again if he refuses to come “we shall invoke the full force of the law to coerce him to appear before the probe panel and this may not go down well with him.” Meanwhile, the director of works from different local government areas who appeared before the probe panel made shocking revelations concerning the projects claimed to have been executed within their areas during the Rescue Mission period (2011-2019). It was revealed at the panel that most of the projects that were listed out by the past administration were not practically executed as claimed.
In Oru East, for instance, Engineer Vincent Okere who said he read Electrical Electronics in the university disclosed that he was not aware of any executed contract during the rescue mission period. “I was not directed to do any work during the period I acted as HOD works and there was no project that I witness that was executed in the LGA”. Speaking further, he submitted that the list of projects mentioned in exhibit EQ4 is not familiar to him.
