By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Governor of Imo state, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) never recovered N7.9 billion from him.
Chief Okorocha said this in reaction to a statement credited to Imam Usman, zonal head of the EFCC Port Harcourt office, on Thursday. Usman was quoted as saying that the commission has returned N2.7 billion out of the N7.9 billion allegedly recovered from the former governor to the state government.
However, in a statement on Friday, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, Chief Okorocha’s spokesperson, said the EFCC was misinformed to peddle falsehood against the former governor.
While denying the commission’s accusation that it recovered N7.9 billion from him, he challenged the anti-graft agency to publish details and owners of the accounts where the money said to have been recovered from him was domiciled.
“The EFCC as a commission or Mr Usman Imam as a person and Head of Enugu zone then, and today, that of Port Harcourt Zone, of the commission, never recovered N7.9 billion or any other amount of money, from Rochas Okorocha” he maintained
“With this denial, we therefore challenge EFCC or Mr. Imam as the one who made the claim, to prove us wrong by publishing details of the bank accounts the money was found and the owners of the accounts,” he said.
Okorocha said the commission should take his denial seriously and come out to clear the air by furnishing the public with more evidence to nail him or nail its ‘falsehood’.
“We hold the EFCC and its personnel in a very high esteem. And we expect the commission or Mr. Imam to take our denial very serious, because Nigerians of goodwill would like to know who is saying the truth or who is lying.
“Where the commission finds out that it had misinformed the public and had also blackmailed the former Imo governor, perhaps unconsciously, we expect the commission or Mr. Imam to do the needful, which is to retract the media statement and then tell Nigerians the correct story. The N7.9 billion in question must be in bank accounts. Let the EFCC publish the accounts’ details without delay”.
“Mr Imam talked about properties owned by Okorocha which the commission had marked. It is also important that Mr. Imam publish those properties because the properties marked had been acquired by Okorocha about twenty years ago.”
Recall that Mr Imam, Head of EFCC, Port Harcourt zone reportedly headed the Enugu zone of EFCC and was responsible for on-going investigations bordering on allegations of corruption while the former governor was the helmsman in Imo state. According to Imam, the commission returned over N5.7bn from N7.5billion recovered from Chief Okorocha to various administrations in Imo State to pay salaries and pensions of workers.
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.”
