Rochas Okorocha
The immediate past governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not investigate the group of colleges owned by him and his family before some of them were sealed off on Tuesday.
Reacting Commission’s action, the former governor in a statement through his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, dismissed the action as “a sympathetic scenario,” stressing that the Peoples Democratic Party government in the state and all its chieftains who felt “politically displaced from 2011 to 2019” by him had come together “to launch war” against him and his family and APC members.
“And that was why they needed INEC to declare their candidate winner, even when he didn’t meet the requirement. Unfortunately, they have instigated certain agencies like EFCC into taking some hasty actions following floods of petitions by them.”
The former governor, who faulted the EFCC approach, argued that, contrary to expectations, there was no prior invitation to the managements or proprietors of the affected colleges and other establishments.
“To the best of our knowledge, too, these colleges have not been under the investigation of the Commission. We have had the feeling that the sealing off of the colleges or any other structure as the case may be, would have been based on the outcome of their investigation in which the management or the proprietors would have also been interrogated,” he added.
The statement reads in part: “What is happening in Imo at the moment is not governance. It is a total war against Rochas and his family, APC members, members of other parties and Opponents. They said they want to make the State uncomfortable for Opponents and they are doing it with recklessness”.
“It should also not be forgotten that there is a subsisting Court Order to this effect. And we believe that the Commission’s office in Enugu is aware of the Court Order in question as it concerns the Commission and Okorocha’s investments. The EFCC is a highly responsible Institution and our appeal is that it should not be incited against Okorocha and family and should equally take cognizance of the Court Order in question”.
“Senator Rochas Okorocha and family believe strongly in the State and have relocated most of their businesses to Owerri unlike these PDP bigwigs who do not love the State, with all of them having nothing to show that they have a stake in the State”.
“We want to appeal to the EFCC to unseal the Colleges and other ventures they had been sealed, pending the outcome of the investigation they said they have begun. And also considering the stand of the Court of Competent Jurisdiction on the issue”.
“The students of the Colleges, most of them without parents, cannot be allowed to suffer because of the action of a wicked government in the State. It is not all about Rochas Okorocha and the family, but about humanity and posterity”.
