Okorocha, others panic as Imo inaugurates committee to recover assets

• Gov charges panel to retrieve all
• Senator seeks policy to curb insecurity, out-of-school phenomenon

Imo State Government has inaugurated Whitepaper Implementation Committee on Lands and Other Related Matters, to recover all illegally acquired state-owned assets, including lands. 

During the inauguration, yesterday, in Owerri, Governor Hope Uzodimma urged the committee led by former Vice Chancellor of Imo State University (IMSU), Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, to recover all assets, in fairness and resoluteness. 

“Your primary duties are to recover for Imo people all the assets gazetted in the whitepaper as set out in the recommendations of the Commission. The whitepaper is unambiguous,” he said.

The governor reiterated his determination to implement the various recommendations of the whitepaper, to move the state forward and “to ensure that the present and future governments are governed by the rule of law.”

He added that his government owes no one apology in the process of achieving equity, fairness, accountability, transparency and rule of law in the state. 

Uzodimma explained the initial delay in activating the recovery process.

“There were lots of legal processes challenging the whitepaper by those who are involved in the illegal acquisition,” he said. 

Disclosing that the legal hurdles had been cleared, he said the committee could now do its job without let or hindrance.

Other members of the committee are Martin Iwuegbu, Chief Ndi Duroha, Chief John Onyenze, Mrs. Uchenna Uba, and Chief Godwin Nwadike.

Since he assumed office, Uzodimma has engaged in several battles with former Governor Rochas Okorocha in attempt to recover government properties allegedly in his custody. 

Okorocha, representing Imo West (Orlu) in the Senate, and his cronies were also accused of illegally acquiring or converting government assets to their personal uses during his Rescue Mission administration in the state. 

Also, Okorocha had instituted several legal suits to stop Uzodimma, describing it as a vendetta and cheap blackmail against him.

IN another development, Senator Okorocha has identified access to quality education as a viable tool to tackle security challenges in the northern part of the country.

While receiving students of Rochas Okorocha Foundation College of Africa (ROFOCA) from South Sudan and Ethiopia in Abuja, yesterday, he said insurgency, banditry and others were linked with illiteracy.

The President of Rochas Foundation College, urged well-to-do Nigerians to see how Almajirai could be given formal education, arguing that “as long as indigent children continue to roam the streets, insecurity will not be surmounted.”

He charged African leaders to make education accessible to the indigent in the continent to give them opportunities like their counterparts in other parts of the world.