Rochas Okorocha To Be Arraigned Today Over Alleged N2.9bn Fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, will today, Tuesday, arraign a former Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, before the Federal High Court in Abuja over his alleged complicity in an N2.9billion fraud.

Okorocha, who steered the affairs of the state from 2011 to 2019, will take his plea before trial Justice Inyang Ekwo.

He will be docked alongside a chieftain of the All Progressive, APC, Anyim Nyerere Chinenye, and five companies- Naphtali International Limited, Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited, Consolid Projects Consulting Limited, Pramif International Limited, and Legend World Concepts Limited.

EFCC, in a 17-count charge it entered before the court, alleged that the Defendants, conspired and diverted public funds into private accounts for their personal use.

According to the anti-graft agency, the Defendants committed the alleged offense between October 2014 and February 2016.

It alleged that the Defendants sequentially siphoned funds from the Imo State Government House account and Imo State Joint Local Government Project account, and diverted same into accounts of private firms.

It will be recalled that Okorocha who is currently the Senator representing Imo West, had recently declared his intention to contest for presidency in the 2023 general elections.

Meanwhile, Okorocha has been made to cough out over N5 billion he fleeced of the state with mountainous crises over government and private lands he illegally acquired.

The Commission of Inquiry set under short lived Emeka Ihedioha’s administration was adopted by Governor Hope Uzodimma, leading to the revocation and return of most of the government owned lands it parcellated to family members and others sold.