Former Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha spent his second night with his interrogators on Tuesday, with indications emerging that he would not be released until he had addressed all the things he knows about the sum of N7.9 billion and choice property allegedly traced to him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A top source in the EFCC told Vanguard on Tuesday night that Okoroch was still being grilled and would not be allowed to go home until the operatives were satisfied with his submission.
“As we speak, former governor Okorocha is still writing his statement at the headquarters of the EFCC and from the look of things he is not likely to be left off the hook until the operatives are satisfied with the answers over the questions being put to him regarding the amount traced in banks to him and the choice property spread across many towns and cities in Nigeria,” the source confided in our reporter.
“The former governor is however cooperating with his interrogators and is writing his own statement on what he has been confronted with. It is only after his statement that those handling his matter would decide the next line of action: either to charge him to court or free him.
“But the truth of the matter is that those interrogating him, know exactly what to do,” one of the officials familiar with the case, told Vanguard last night.
It will be recalled that Okorocha, who presided over the affairs of Imo State until 2015, was picked up by operatives of the EFCC on Monday morning in Abuja and taken to the headquarters of the commission in Jabi, where he has been since then, answering questions relating to the amount reportedly traced to him.
But he has denied that such amount and account belong to him. The Head of the Port Harcourt Zone of the EFCC, Imam Usman, had spoken of the tracing of at least N7.9 billion in several Nigerian banks to the former governor.
Usman said: “Within the period in review, the Commission succeeded in freezing about N7.9 billion in different accounts. Out of this, N2.7billion was released to the Imo state government to enable it pay staff salaries and pensions.
“Also, properties worth billions of Naira recovered in the course of the investigation have been forfeited to the Federal Government.”
“Only last month, N514million was further released to the incumbent administration of the state to enable it meet its obligations to workers,” Usman said last year when the saga between Okorocha and the EFCC started.
VANGUARD
