Imo to get N7.9b cash seized from Okorocha

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Thursday that a former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, should get ready for trial over alleged embezzlement of N7.9bn.

It said the amount had been recovered from Okorocha out of which 5.7bn was handed over to the state government in tranches.

The EFCC Port Harcourt Zonal Head, Usman Imam, made this known.

Imam said N7.9bn was recovered from Okorocha, who now represents Imo West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, during investigations.

Imam, who has been in charge of the ongoing probe of the former governor, explained that  out of the money,  over N5.7bn was released to ”various administrations (Emeka Ihedioha and Hope Uzodimma)” to pay salaries and pensions of workers.

He said the Ihedioha government received N5.2b out which a balance of N2b was unspent.  Uzodimma’s government got N514m last month while a balance of N1.8b which is ‘encumbered’ is still in the state’s treasury.

He 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 investigation.

“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.

“N2.7b was released in March for salaries. In the PDP government of Emeka Ihedioha, excess of N2.5bn upon a series of writings and our insistence on 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.”

Apart from the money recovered from Okorocha, the EFCC zonal boss said the senator’s assets   identified in Imo and Abuja were seized by the commission.

He added that the agency had already filed a court process for interim forfeiture of the assets.