The political rivalry in Imo State between the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deepened yesterday after elements of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the Imo State Commissioner of Finance, Mr. Okafor Chike John and the Accountant General of the state, Eche Ezenna George over allegations of fraud and sundry financial misconduct. The two officials have been transferred to the EFCC office in Abuja where they are being questioned by interrogators.
The arrest, Huhuonline.com learnt, came in the wake of a petition by the sacked chairmen of the 27 Local Governments who dragged Governor Rochas Okorocha before the EFCC alleging misappropriation of N13.5 billion bond proceeds purportedly handed over to him by his predecessor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim. Under the platform of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), the council chairmen further called on the Attorney-General of the Federation, Inspector-General of Police and other security agencies to immediately disarm and disband Imo Security Network, a private militia which they alleged, Gov. Okorocha was using to terrorize Imo state.
Huhuonline.com learnt from EFCC sources that the two officials were arrested in connection with a N47 billion loan transaction from Zenith Bank allegedly taken by the state government, adding that the immunity clause provided by Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution had made it impossible to arrest Gov. Okorocha, who has been accused of using the allocations due to local governments as collateral to borrow N45 billion from Zenith Bank and another N28 billon from Diamond Bank.
“These borrowings are clearly illegal. State governments are not allowed to borrow more than 50per cent of their previous year’s allocation. “Here again Governor Okorocha is showing contempt to the rule of law. “By his own admission he has committed Imo State to contractual obligations worth over N400 billion. Yet there are no documents for these contracts,” the ALGON secretary, Enyimmaya Onuegbu told a press conference in Abuja.
Onuegbu indicated that Gov. Okorocha has very strong anti-democratic credentials which he flaunts with impunity. “In his maiden broadcast to the people of Imo State on Monday June 6, 2011, Governor Rochas Okorocha unlawfully dissolved the 27 democratically elected local governments in Imo State, the Development Areas as well as tenured Commissions, including the Judicial Service Commission. “As law-abiding citizens, we the democratically elected 27 local government chairmen took the unlawful dissolution of the LGs to court.
In a judgment, the Chief Judge of Imo State, Hon. Justice B.A. Njemanze ruled that the Governor acted in error. The Chief Judge however, refused to order our return to our offices, claiming that there was no evidence before him that the LGs were dissolved; notwithstanding the Governor’s widely publicized broadcast”. To which end, the council chiefs appealed the Court of Appeal Owerri Division which, in a unanimous decision on July 5, 2012 reaffirmed that the governor acted ultra vires.
But Governor Okorocha ignored the judgment and proceeded to send all the senior staff in the local governments on compulsory leave creating a paralysis to justify his appointment of new Directors of Administration and General Services, DAGS, who now operate from hotels in Owerri,” Onuegbu said.
