Okorocha May Be Arraigned In Owerri |The Source

By Charles Igbo

Former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, may be arraigned in Court, today, Monday, February 22.

Both Police and Government  sources confirmed his arraignment to this magazine Sunday night.

However, unconfirmed sources say, Okorocha, who was placed in Police custody, has been released on bail due to alleged interventions from different  quarters, including the Presidency and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu. He left last night, the report claimed, for his Owerri Spibet residence.

A source had told this magazine early Sunday evening, that the IGP said he should be released “on health grounds. The source did not elaborate.

Okorocha was arrested Sunday when he led a group of his supporters to the Riyal Palm Estate, seized and sealed by the Imo State Government, on Friday, February 19, to unseal the Estate by ordering the breaking of the keys of the gate to the Estate.

The sprawling multi- billion Naira Estate is owned by Nkechi, Okorocha’s wife. But a Judicial Panel of Inquiry on.Lands and other Related Matters, set up by the immediate past Governor of the State, the Rt.Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, and inherited by incumbent Governor Hope Uzodinma, recommended the stripping of the Estate from Mrs Okorocha. A Whitepaper was recently issued on the recommendation, gazzetted and adopted by the State Executive Council.

It was based on that the State Government moved to seize the Estate, allegedly built on acres of land forcefully and illegally acquired.

But on Sunday, Okorocha moved to forcefully repossess the Estate. He broke into it, overwhelming security personnel at the gate.

Police were alerted when the atmosphere became tense, leading to serious alterations between Okorocha and his people, including his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, on one side, and Government officials on the other side.

Okorocha was subsequently arrested for illegal entry and a breach of the peace.

While Nwosu managed to escape, arrested with Okorocha were Ijeoma Igboanusi and Lasbery Okafor-Anyanwu, Okorocha’s  Commissioner for Transport, while in office.

But in a statement  his Media Adviser, Sam Onwuemedo, alleged that the Imo State Government attacked his boss with over 1,000 armed thugs, an allegation eye witness accounts dismiss.

Many people are wondering why the former Governor, now a Senator representing Imo West, took the laws into his hands, instead of seeking legal redress.