Ihedioha decries massive looting by Okorocha’s administration

By Val skara, Owerri

Imo State Governor, Emeka Ihedioha on Thursday decried the level of rot and corruption associated with the immediate past administration.

Speaking at the maiden stakeholders meeting in Owerri, the state capital, Gov. Ihedioha said the deep hole of corruption and mindless misappropriation perpetuated by the last administration in the state is alarming as contracts were awarded orally and without documentation.

According to him, there was massive looting and stripping of public assets, dismantling and carting away of public property.

“There were last minute illegal sale of government property at give away prices and unlawful allocation of lands, including backdating certificate of occupancy, instances of mindlessly withdrawing cash from government accounts in commercial banks without due process as well as recruiting and promoting civil servants,” the governor alleged.

He lamented that the Rochas Okorocha’s government incurred over N100 billion on behalf of the state government without anything to show for it and further disclosed that his administration has received over N30 billion of garnishee orders arising from several ill-conceived and fraudulent contractual agreements consummated by the last administration to destroy the future of the state.

Ihedioha, who appealed for calm, urged the people of the state to be patient as his administration is determined to bring any person involved in looting of government property to book, assuring that nobody would get away from the long arms of the law without accounting for their misdeeds while in office.

He further expressed shock that the past administration and its appointees in the state carted away almost every movable and immovable assets belonging to the state, disclosing that a recovery team has been put in place to go after the suspected looters.

The governor cautioned the recovery committee to respect the rights and dignity of the suspected looters of government property even as he advised the culprits to voluntarily return them to the committee.

According to him, his administration has resolved to recover and return to the state all looted assets as no individual is bigger than the state as security agencies have been drafted to assist the recovery committee to carry out its assignments.

“Can you imagine that Government House was disconnected from public power supply due to unpaid bills? I recently reversed that by settling some of the arrears and we were reconnected back to public power supply,” he stated.