Imo PDP candidate exposes Okorocha’s N1.2bn sleaze

Bonaventure Melah

The campaign organisation of Imo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, said it has uncovered massive fraud and diversion funds belonging to the people of the by Governor Rochas Okorocha to the tune of N1.2 billion. In a press statement signed by its spokesperson, Kissinger Ikeokwu Esq and made available to The Daily Times, on Wednesday, the Emeka Ihedioha Campaign Organisation said the outgoing administration illegally paid a private consultancy firm a “whopping sum of N1, 200,000,000.00 (one billion, two hundred million Naira), as six months payment in advance, purportedly for payment of salaries for six months at a monthly remuneration of N200, 000,00000 (two hundred million naira) monthly. “The shady contract with the yet to be named company is suspicious because the Rochas Okorocha administration remembered to engage a contractor to manage payment of workers’ salaries just three months to the end of its eight years tenure. “The unilateral agreement entered on behalf of the state by Governor Rochas Okorocha and his family will mortgage Imo finances to a consultancy firm whereby the state is required to pay N200,000,00000 (two hundred million naira) monthly, is illegal, fraudulent and unacceptable,” the statement said. According to it, the news that the administration of Rochas Okorocha in Imo State paid such amount to a company upfront when it has not rendered any service to the state is suspicious. “Why will a government that has only three months to the end of its tenure tie Imo people to such waste of scarce resources? Why would Imo State government pay a private firm N200,000,00000 (two hundred million naira) monthly for mere payment of salaries, a service the Imo State Ministry of Finance has been handling even in the final three months of its administration. “The manner in which the state government paid six months fee upfront to the tune of N1.2 Billion exposes the deep intents that this contract is a mere ploy to divert Imo funds for the illegal purposes of funding Okorocha and his son in-law’s desperate bids to maintain Imo as their cash cow through the upcoming elections. “We are therefore calling on the Rochas Okorocha administration to immediately cancel the fraudulent contract and return the said sum of N1,200,000 (one Billion, two hundred million Naira) paid up front to the shady firm with immediate effect. “We wish to use this same opportunity to warn the relevant personnel of the Imo State Ministry of Finance to resist all illegal orders that will pitch them against the relevant laws of the land, as the Okorocha administration begin their last desperate plundering of Imo State funds and properties in the final weeks of its failed administration. Any person whether staff of Imo State government or individual who aides this government in any manner to misappropriate public funds will answer for it at the appropriate time. “We urge Imo people to speak up against the plundering of our state’s commonwealth as we endure the last days of Rochas Okorocha misgovernance in Imo,” the statement said, adding that all monies belonging to Imo people that have been stolen by the administration of Rochas Okorocha would be recovered if Emeka Ihedioha is elected governor in March.