Former Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha (now a serving Senator in Nigeria) was still being held and grilled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and therefore would not be allowed to go home until the operatives were satisfied with his submission.
He is telling the EFCC all he knows about the sum of N7.9 billion and different choice property allegedly traced to him by the commission most of which happened when he served Imo State as governor for eight years. For the people of Imo State, which has been unfortunate with leadership, the Okorocha era would go down the history book as one of the worst in the history of the state following Okorocha’s alleged misadministration and retardation.
A top shot in EFCC who is involved in grilling Okorocha squealed that, “As we speak, former governor Okorocha is still writing his statement at the headquarters of the EFCC and from the look of things he is not likely to be left off the hook until the operatives are satisfied with the answers over the questions being put to him regarding the amount traced in banks to him and the choice property spread across many towns and cities in Nigeria,” the source stated.
“The former governor is however cooperating with his interrogators and is writing his own statement on what he has been confronted with. It is only after his statement that those handling his matter would decide the next line of action: either to charge him to court or free him.
“But the truth of the matter is that those interrogating him, know exactly what to do,” one of the officials familiar with the case, revealed. It will be recalled that Okorocha, who presided over the affairs of Imo State until 2015, was picked up by operatives of the EFCC on Monday morning in Abuja and taken to the headquarters of the commission in Jabi, where he has been since then, answering questions relating to the amount reportedly traced to him. But he has denied that such amount and account belong to him.
The Head of the Port Harcourt Zone of the EFCC, Imam Usman, had spoken of the tracing of at least N7.9 billion in several Nigerian banks to the former governor. Usman said: “Within the period in review, the Commission succeeded in freezing about N7.9 billion in different accounts. Out of this, N2.7billion was released to the Imo state government to enable it pay staff salaries and pensions.
“Also, properties worth billions of Naira recovered in the course of the investigation have been forfeited to the Federal Government. Only last month, N514million was further released to the incumbent administration of the state to enable it to meet its obligations to workers,” Usman said last year when the saga between Okorocha and the EFCC started.
