By Gideon Njoku
From all indications, President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, from continuing its prosecution of Senator Rochas Okorocha, a former two-term Governor.
The EFCC had filed a 17- count charge against Okorocha and others, alleging a misappropriation and embezzlement of Imo State funds while Okorocha was the Governor of Imo State between 2011 and 2019, to the tune of N2.9billions. The infraction took place, according to the EFCC, between 2014 and 2016.
The former Governor will be arraigned at a Federal High Court, Abuja on Tuesday along with a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Anyim Nyerere Chinenye, and five companies – Naphtali International Ltd, Perfect Finish Multi Project Ltd, Consolid Project Consulting Ltd, Pramif International Ltd and, Legend World Concepts Limited.
The EFCC had filed the charges against Okorocha and Co. on January 31, 2022, the day he declared he would run for the office of the President in 2023.
The case is before the Hon. Justice Inyang Ekwo.
The charges again them include that they, allegedly, *conspired and diverted public funds into their accounts for personal use.
*Sequentially siphoned funds from the Imo State Government House account and Imo State Joint Local Government Project Account, and diverted same into accounts of private firms.
When the suit was filed, Okorocha had gone to President Muhammadu Buhari, and appealed to him to ask the EFCC to leave him alone, pleading persecution.
He said he has reported the anti-graft Commission to Buhari, and that the President had promised to look into it. Not a few people were surprised by that claim.
However, he also said he had a Court injunction against the EFCC which precluded him from being arrested or harassed or prosecuted by it. Okorocha also claimed that the EFCC owes him the sum of N500m being Court judgements against the Commission.
With the would-be arraignment on Tuesday, it is obvious neither the President nor the EFCC paid his complaints any attention.
The former Governor has always to be richer than Imo State, and so, has no business stealing the State’s money. On the contrary, he claims the State owed him the sum of eight billion Naira accruing from Security votes which he claimed he never took.
