Former Governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha, who has been in Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) detention since Tuesday, has been granted bail.
A statement by Sam Onwuemeodo, his Special Adviser on Media, announced that Okorocha, the senator representing Imo West (Orlu) senatorial district “is out of the office of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC and he is now in his house.”
Spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that Okorocha has been granted bail, as at Thursday, and that the process will still continue.
He, however, could not confirm speculations that the release of Okorocha was as a result of the intervention of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike or due to the strike action currently being embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).
Modestus Nwamkpa, an aide of Senator Hope Uzodinma, the incumbent Governor of Imo State, had said that Okorocha was let off the EFCC hook on compassionate grounds and on account of the JUSUN strike.
According to him, friends of Okorocha had appealed to the leadership of EFCC to free him on health grounds, as well as on account of the fact that since no one knows when the JUSUN strike would end, his arraignment on alleged corrupt charges could not be done immediately and by law, he cannot be held in custody without being charged to court beyond 48 hours as stipulated by Section 35 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Nwamkpa had further alleged that Okorocha gave a committed to comport himself and make himself available for arraignment whenever such would take place, stressing that these commitments were extracted from him in the presence of “a serving Governor from the South South, a Northern Emir and a former Senator from the North” who stood as sureties for him.
Onwuemeodo said, however, that Okorocha cooperated fully with the EFCC operatives and had “the needed opportunity to address the allegations contained in the avalanche of petitions written by the lmo State Government” against him.
