Impeachment moves against Governor Okorocha for alleged financial mismanagement and abuse of office,

Considering the alleged bribery scandal
rocking the Imo State
Government, which has led to
the impeachment moves
against the state Deputy
Governor, Mr. Jude Agbaso, a group noted for its activism for
good governance, Save Imo, has
petitioned the Speaker of the
Imo State House of Assembly to
immediately commence
impeachment moves against the state Governor, Chief Rochas
Okorocha, for abuse of office. A three-page petition
accompanied with a sworn
affidavit of facts sworn to at the
High Court Registry, Owerri and
signed by the coordinator of the
group, Mr. Ebubeagu Godwin Ekenulo, urged the assembly to
immediately investigate and
start impeachment proceedings
on the governor for alleged
abuse of office, diversion of
government revenue and other related offences which the
governor has used his office to
commit. "We wish to most sincerely in
the interest of the masses of
Imo State and to save the state
from monumental fraud and
diversion of government
resources presently going on in the state to present to Mr.
Speaker, these catalog of
impeachable offences
committed by the governor of
our state on which we call on
you for his immediate impeachment," Ekenulo said. Although, the governor's
spokesperson, Mr. Ebere
Uzoukwa, said such a petition
had not reached the governor
and as such government could
not react to it, he stated that the Imo Assembly has a right to
perform its oversight functions
and could go ahead to
investigate the governor, whom
he said has not committed any
impeachable offence. The Save Imo group who also
sent a separate petition to the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) identified
about 13 offences which it
accused the governor of committing while in office,
adding that if nothing urgent
was done to bring the governor
to book, the state would be
insolvent and uninhabitable for
the people. Ekenulo commended the state
assembly for starting the
impeachment process on the
deputy governor, but noted that
the governor being a partner of
the deputy governor had committed more incriminating
impeachable offences and in the
process had abused his oath of
office, and therefore cannot be
left unscratched. Among the list of offences the
governor was accused of
include: unlawful use and
diversion of government
revenue and funds to establish
his private University at Ogboko contrary to his oath of office;
concealment of revenue from
proceeds of the concession of
Imo Concorde Hotel, Adapalm,
Imo Transport Company, Imo
General Hospitals and conversion of proceeds of same
to personal use contrary to his
oath of office as governor;
approval of 100 percent upfront
payment for road contract to
JPROS International Nig. Ltd. without proper evidence of
work completion contrary to
the public procurement laws. Other offences are: unlawful use
of the proceeds of the Imo State
bond by diversion to
unapproved project contrary to
the Imo State bond law;
unlawful use of the proceeds of the bond to the tune of over
N13.3 billion without
appropriation; approval of
award of contract to JPROS
International without
advertisement and other contract processes contrary to
the public procurement laws;
unauthorised and unlawful use
of local government allocation
to the tune of N63 billion; and
conversion of government assets and properties such as
Imo deputy governor's lodge
and two-story building at
Director's quarters, Orlu road to
Lamonde Hotel, a company in
which he has interest contrary to his oath of office. The coordinator of the group,
however, appealed to the
assembly to show that her
action against the deputy
governor was not propelled or
induced but motivated by genuine concern for probity,
transparency and accountability,
stating "I believe that the
assembly is desirous to fight
corruption, so they will not be
selective. I also believe that the assembly will treat this matter
this dispatch in order to make
Imo people believe that they are
fair and that their oversight
function is in order."