EFCC arrests Imo Accountant-General
…Accuses Gov Okorocha diverting N1bn for vote buying
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested the Accountant-General of Imo State, Uzoho Casmir, for allegedly helping the state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to launder N1.05 billionn for the governorship and state assembly elections holding today.
The allegations were contained in an EFCC situation report which was obtained on Friday.
Okorocha, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is supporting his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance (AA) against the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Hope Uzodinma.
The act earned Okorocha a suspension from the party last week.
The EFCC report reads in part: “The EFCC, Enugu zonal office, Thursday, March 8, 2019 arrested the acting Accountant General of Imo State, Mr. Uzoho Casmir, on suspicion of laundering the sum of N1.050 billion through a new generation bank for the Governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha.
“Uzoho’s arrest followed intelligence report that the governor intended to use the money for vote buying in favour of a particular candidate in tomorrow’s gubernatorial election.
“Intelligence further revealed that Mr. Casmir withdrew the amount in three tranches between Tuesday and Thursday this week in the following order: N200 million on Tuesday, N500 million on Wednesday and N350 million on Thursday.
“Meanwhile, the EFCC has blocked the traced accounts, while the arrested accountant-general has been providing useful information to the commission.
“Mr. Casmir was before his appointment, a director of Finance in Okorocha’s government and was in 2016 fingered in N2 billion bailout fund scam, which was then given to the state by the Federal Government for the payment of salary arrears of civil servants.”
