.Says They Will Use Every Lawful Means To Recover Imo Money
By Onyinyechi Amakaulo
A concerned non- governmental organization under the name “Sincere Concern Organization INC” has on Wednesday 21st June 2023 called on the executive governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma to implement fully the white paper, on recovery of stolen property, especially the more than N130 Billion being held by Rochas Okorocha administration.
Speaking to Journalists in Owerri the state capital, the Director General of the organization, Mrs Foluke Olabimbe Lemechi said that “we are saddened that those who looted the assets and money of the state are still walking freely and even planning to return to power, by proxy, to finally bleed the state to death through unbridled state corruption”.
She noted that the administration of Rt .Hon Emeka Ihedioha set up a Commission of Inquiry to probe the administration of his predecessor, senator Rochas Okorocha, following the outcries by Imo people concerning the plundering of the state, through phoney contracts, awards and dispossession of both public and private lands belonging to Imo people, by the Okorocha administration and his family.
Mrs Lemechi recalled that during the sitting of the panel, Imo people were horrified by the testimonies which revealed that the state had been raped to coma by one man and his family, who according to her, had turned the state into a private estate. “it is to the credit of the peaceful or do we say docile nature of our people that some people were not stoned for the mindless looting of our patrimony” she said.
Foluke Lemechi stressed that the commission didn’t complete their assignment when Senator Hope Uzodimma succeeded Rt.Hon.Emeka Ihedioha as governor, adding that it is instructive that in spite of pressures , Uzodimma refused to disband the panels of inquiry, which according to her , governor Uzodimma understood correctly that the inquiry was beyond him because the entire Imo people wanted answers to mind boggling looting of assets of the state, including forceful conversion of public institutions like Imo broadcasting corporation into private use ,the seizure of Judiciary quarters and even privately owned lands .
She used the opportunity to call on the governor Hope Uzodimma to do the needful by taking necessary actions, as she said that if Okorocha didn’t return the money or not in Jail, that her organization shall take all lawful steps to ensure that Justice is served and for it to be a warning to public holders not to steal from the public purse and think that they will go scot free ,she submitted.
