The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said that it has recovered N7.9bn from Imo State former Governor, Rochas Okorocha.
The commission said it had delivered N5.7bn to Imo State Government – partly when Emeka Ihedioha was in office and now during Hope Uzurdinma era.
According to the Zonal Head of the commission, Usman Imam, the monies were released to for the payment of salaries and pensions.
Imam said:
“I started the Imo state case in Enugu and upon my deployment to this zone, the investigations of corruption allegations against the former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, was transfered from the Enugu zone to Port Harcourt for further investigations.
“Within the period, the commission succeeded in freezing about N7.9bn in different accounts. All the monies that were released to Imo State government were from the N7.9bn recovered from Okorocha. The monies were released in batches.
“N2.7bn was released in March for salaries. In the PDP government of Emeka Ihedioha, excess of N2.5bn upon series of writings and our insistence of monitoring it, was released to pay salaries and pensions because they were monies recovered from the state so it has to go back to the state.
“Then the government of Emeka left and this government came, we had a remnant of the money in excess of N2bn. We were able to release N514milion just last month because excess of about N1.8bn is encumbered with a court process. Contractors went to court and targeted the funds. The process is lingering. They still have excess of N1.8bn that is not released.”
The commission added that some property has also been seized from Okorocha, who is now a senator.
“The investigation has got to an advanced stage and we are expecting that on conclusion, we are going to arraign the former governor. It is in the course of investigations that we targeted his assets. Some are in Imo, Owerri and some are in Abuja. We marked these properties in Abuja and we have filed court processes for interim forfeiture of these assets. The target is to conclude the investigations and he will have his day in court,” Imam added.
