Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have sealed off properties belonging to Senator Rochas Okorocha, immediate past Governor of Imo State. Also sealed are properties belonging to one of his daughters, Uloma Nwosu in Owerri the Imo State capital. One of the properties includes the Rochas Foundation College, Owerri.
Also sealed is the East High Primary, East Secondary school, Owerri which belongs to Rochas Okorocha’s first daughter, Uloma Nwosu. Also sealed is All-In Supermarket, Owerri, said to belong to a member of Okorocha’s family.
The sealed assets simply read “under investigation by EFCC.keep off.”
The management of East High Primary and Secondary School in a statement on Wednesday said that its schools were only under investigation and not sealed by the anti-graft agency.
Reacting, Okorocha said that the EFCC did not investigate the group of colleges owned by him and his family before they were sealed off.
He said the anti-graft agency did not interact with the colleges’ owners, as would be expected, before taking action against them.
The former governor appealed to the EFCC to unseal the Rochas Foundation Colleges and other ventures belonging to him.
Okorocha, who spoke in a statement signed by his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, dismissed the action as “a sympathetic scenario,” stressing that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government in the state and all its chieftains who felt “politically displaced from 2011 to 2019” by him had come together “to launch war” against him and his family and APC members.
“And that was why they needed INEC to declare their candidate winner, even when he didn’t meet the requirement.
“Unfortunately, they have instigated certain agencies like EFCC into taking some hasty actions following floods of petitions by them.”
The former governor, who faulted the EFCC approach, argued that, contrary to expectations, there was no prior invitation to the managements or proprietors of the affected colleges and other establishments.
“To the best of our knowledge, too, these colleges have not been under the investigation of the Commission.
“We have had the feeling that the sealing off of the colleges or any other structure as the case maybe, would have been based on the outcome of their investigation in which the managements or the proprietors would have also been interrogated,” he added.
Okorocha further stated that sealing off of the colleges and other properties owned by him and members of his family before investigation was difficult to comprehend, noting that most of them had preceded his tenure as governor.
He argued that the pupils of the colleges, most of whom are orphans, should not be allowed to suffer. The school reportedly has more than 3,000 students.
