Former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha may remain in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) till his arraignment in court on May 30, 2022.
This means that unless the All Progressives Congress (APC) screens him while in detention or allows him to participate in the presidential primary of his party which he has been campaigning to participate in, his presidential ambition has come to a shuddering halt.
The EFCC arrested him after several hours of laying siege to his Maitama, Abuja residence and shooting sporadically to disperse some of his supporters that gathered to protest the siege to his house.
A statement by Wilson Uwujaren, Head, Media & Publicity of EFCC said they went after Okorocha following his refusal “to honour invitations after jumping the administrative bail earlier granted him by the Commission.”
The statement explained further that the “EFCC had on January 24, 2022 filed a 17-count criminal charge bordering on diversion of public funds and properties to the tune of N2.9billion against Okorocha.
“The case was assigned to Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja but attempts to arraign Senator Okorocha were twice stalled owing to the absence of the ex-governor who evaded service of processes.
“At the last adjourned date, March 28th, 2022, Justice Ekwo before adjourning until May 30th, 2022, had warned that it was “the last adjournment I shall grant in this matter.”
“In the circumstances, the Commission is left with no option than to effect the arrest of Senator Okorocha and bring him to trial.”
A source close to the EFCC told GPNEWS that “since after Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike intervened to secure Okorocha’s release from EFCC detention the last time he was arrested, the former Imo State Governor has refused to meet the conditions for his release and literally went underground.”
According to the source, “whenever Okorocha appeared in public, he would barricade himself with security operatives,” stressing that “the only option open to the EFCC was to storm his residence and take him in to face trial,” pointing out that failing to do so would have meant that the case against the serving Senator representing Orlu zone of Imo State would have been thrown out by Justice Ekwo on Monday, May 30, 2022.
The Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa had yesterday, Monday, May 23, 2022, expressed concerns about corruption cases being lost by the Commission to technicalities at various levels of court in the country.
In his opening remarks at a three-day capacity building workshop organised for judicial officers, corruption investigators and prosecutors, he had said that such situations encourage corrupt elements and affect the image of the judiciary, stressing that, “As a Commission, we do not expect every judicial decision to go our way, but there are instances the EFCC and many Nigerians have been left at a loss about certain judicial decisions, where defendants who obviously have stolen our commonwealth and those who have aided and abetted them have been allowed to go home to enjoy their proceeds of crime on technical grounds.”
Okorocha, before he was whisked off, however, had addressed the media insisting that he had never been invited by the antigraft agency, alleging further that his latest travails were connected to an attempt to stop him from being screened to participate in the APC presidential primaries.
He had also said that he was told that the order to rearrest him was based on orders from above, appealing that he should be allowed to go for the screening.
“If he is let off the hook now, we do not know how long it will take us to get him again to answer to the charges against him,” the source said, insisting that politics has nothing to do with the rearrest of the Okorocha.
