I have no hand in Okorocha’s ordeal – Gov. Uzodinma; Ex-Governor spends second night in EFCC detention

Former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha is spending his second night in the detention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

This is as the incumbent Governor of the State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has washed his hands off the travail of the man who took over his seat as representative of Orlu Senatorial zone in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly.

Okorocha was arrested on Tuesday night in Abuja by operatives of the EFCC, after, according to the agency, evading arrest for a while, including shunning several of their invitations to come and answer to allegations of corrupt practices leveled against him.

He was nabbed based on allegations of corrupt practices during his two terms in office as Governor of Imo state.

Spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, Wednesday night, confirmed to GPNews that Okorocha was still with them, answering questions.

He, however, refused to say for how long the ex-Governor could be with them before being charged to court, insisting that the agency was “doing its job and following the due process of the law.”

Another source close to the agency told GPNews that Okorocha may remain with the agency for a while “considering the gravity, magnitude and number of petitions written against him which the EFCC is investigating.”

But Sam Onwuemeodo, Special Adviser on Media to Okorocha in a statement in reaction to his arrest on Tuesday said that the several petitions against his principal were written by the state government and had been investigated and taken to various courts before now.

He said further that “if the EFCC has decided to invite Okorocha for clarifications on the matters already in Courts, especially with a new Chairman at the helm of affairs at the Commission, there is nothing wrong with that.”

But apparently reacting to Onwuemeodo’s statement as well as comments of other Okorocha sympathisers that the petitions standing against the former governor were written by the Imo State government, an aide of Senator Uzodinma, Nwamkpa Modestus, said that Okorocha’s invitation by the EFCC to answer questions “on allegations bordering on money laundering and other sundry offences” started less than two months after he left office, when Uzodinma had not become Governor.

According to him, “EFCC received an avalanche of petitions from Contractors, Pensioners, Civil Servants and so many Imo people against the ex Governor,” stressing that “given the quantum of alleged malfeasance that took place under him,” Okorocha should have known that it was only a matter of time before the long arms of the law would catch up with him, insisting that “those who obstruct the peace of the Beehives should endure the pains of the Bees stings.”

Okorocha has been having a running battle with Uzodinma over issues relating to lands, property and funds of the state allegedly looted by the former Governor while in office, one of which issues led to Okorocha being arrested and detained briefly by the Imo State Police command not long ago. The no love lost situation between the two has, thus, led Okorocha’s supporters to finger Uzodinma as being responsible for the ex-governor’s present ordeal.