Abia group insists EFCC case against Orji politically motivated

A socio-political organisation, Abia Unity Forum (AUF), has urged concerned Nigerians to disregard the recent media publications over a purported petition allegedly sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2015 by a group called Save Abia Initiative (SAI).

The petitioners alleged that the former Abia State governor, Senator Theodore Orji, defrauded the state of about N525 billion while in office, even as recent media reports added that the former governor allegedly used his son, Hon. Chinedum Orji, who is the current Speaker of the state House of Assembly, as a conduit.

However, speaking with The Guardian, the AUF Publicity Secretary, Ambassador Chidiebere Kanu, disclosed that the petitioner “had since written the EFCC to withdraw the petition and apologised to the former governor, saying that he was misled into endorsing the petition.”
   
Kanu said there was no need to correct the erroneous impression being created in the media, which he said fails to recognise the fact that the petitioners wanted to achieve political ends at the time they authored the petition.

It was also reported that in the course of its investigation, the EFCC traced large sums of money suspected to be part of the alleged looted N525 billion to about 100 bank accounts linked to the former governor’s son.

The AUF spokesman said: “SAI had filed the petition to the EFCC in 2015 ostensibly to stop the inauguration of the former governor (Senator Orji) into the Senate on the basis that he allegedly looted all the N474 billion revenue that accrued to the state government between 2011 and 2015.”