By Gideon Njoku
For former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, now a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representing Imo West, the chickens are coming home to roost.
Okorocha will soon have his day in court to answer to the alleged monumental corruption cases hanging on his neck, a consequence of his eight year governorship in the state.
This was disclosed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Thursday, when it gave Okorocha notice to get ready for his day in court.
The Commission, also, disclosed that, so far, it has released to the Imo State Government, the sum of N5.7b, out of the N7.9b, Imo money which it seized from Okorocha.
The Commission’s Zonal Head, Usman Imam, who spoke at the Zonal Office, PH, while giving an overview of the Zone’s activities, revealed that the N7.9bn belonging to Imo State, was seized from Okorocha during the EFCC investigations of him.
Imam has been in charge of the Okorocha probe since his days as the Zonal Head, Enugu. The case was transfered to him as soon as he was redeployed to PH.
The N5.7bn was returned to both the Governments of the immediate past Governor of the state, The Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, and that of the present, Senator Hope Uzodinma. It was released to them to pay salaries and pensions of workers.
Imam: “I started the Imo state case in Enugu and upon my deployment to this zone, the investigations of corruption allegations against the former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, was transfered from the Enugu zone to Port Harcourt for further investigations.
“Within the period, the Commission succeeded in freezing about N7.9bn in different accounts. All the monies that were released to Imo State government were from the N7.9bn recovered from Okorocha. The monies were released in batches.
“N2.7bn was released in March for salaries. In the PDP government of Emeka Ihedioha, excess of N2.5bn, upon series of writings and our insistence of monitoring it, was released to pay salaries and pensions because they were monies recovered from the state so it has to go back to the state.
“Then the government of Emeka left, and this government came. We had a remnant of the money in excess of N2bn. We were able to release N514milion just last month because excess of about N1.8bn is encumbered with a court process.
“Contractors went to court, and targeted the funds. The process is lingering. They still have excess of N1.8bn that is not released”.
In addition to the N7.9 billion recovered from Okorocha, Iman, also, disclosed that Okorocha’s assets identified in Imo and Abuja have been seized by the EFCC.
According to him, the commission filed a court process for interim forfeiture of the assets confiscated from Okorocha.
Imam: “The investigation has got to an advanced stage and we are expecting that on conclusion, we are going to arraign the former governor.
“It is in the course of investigations that we targeted his assets. Some are in Imo, Owerri and some are in Abuja. We marked these properties in Abuja and we have filed court processes for interim forfeiture of these assets. The target is to conclude the investigations and he will have his day in court”.
Imam, also, disclosed that since he assumed the leadership of the PH zone in January, the Commission has recovered N291.8million, 847,983 US Dollars, 390 pounds, 10,900 Euros and 500 CFA.
Over N1.1bn in the accounts of Bluekey Technologies allegedly operating a ponzi scheme and defrauding over 8,926 victims of over N4.4bn was recovered.
He said the EFFCC further “secured interim forfeiture of 96 trucks, vessels and barges while 226 drums of automotive gas oil and 1million litres of suspected crude oil were finally forfeited to the Federal Government”.
Also, the zone received 441 petitions, and successfully investigated 262 of them awaiting legal advice and 20 are charged to court.
The Commission, however has its challenges. He said: “Fighting corruption comes with its peculiar challenges. The corrupt are not going to fold their hands while you retrieve what they had stolen. They would fight back.
“This has come in the form of sponsored media attacks. A blogger, one Dikeocha Chukwuebuka, who caused the zone serious blushes by posting fake pictures of purported overcrowded EFCC cell was arrested and currently under prosecution.
“Other challenges are non-cooperation, and delayed response to this commission’s enquiries by some agencies; logistic challenge in investigating oil bunkering cases and inadequate office accommodation for staff”.
“In spite of the challenges, the zone remains committed to actualising the mandate of the commission, which is to eradicate corruption in Nigeria”.
