Several sources in Owerri, capital of Imo State, and Abuja have told Saharareporters that rogue Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo bankrupted the state treasury to buy the verdict of the Supreme Court which a week ago upheld his election as governor.


Several of our sources, who are in Ohakim’s government, told our correspondent that the governor knew before hand that the apex court would award him victory and had prepared dancers and masquerades at the Imo airport in advance. “I have never seen this level of financial recklessness by any other chief executive in the name of buying a judgment,” said one of our highly placed sources.

Another added, “Imo State government became financially bankrupt on the eve of the judgment.”

A senior official of Bank PHB confirmed that several state government accounts in with the bank “had been turned upside down.” The official said that one account (No. 082112000037, officially named JOINT STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENT PROJECT A/C) was drawn down to zero.

Other officials told Saharareporters that, apart from this account, Ohakim maintains five other similar joint accounts, but that the local government areas are not even aware of the existence of those other accounts.

Account No. 082112000037 was opened at BankPHB Branch No.2, located at 5B Okigwe Rd, Owerri. “It is at this bank that most secret but fake contract values are lodged before evacuation,” an official of the state government disclosed.

Several sources told us that most contracts awarded under this account are not genuine. “This account serves as a conduit through which Governor Ohakim loots the state treasury,” said a government source.

Typically, Ohakim would award a contract, get it approved by Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) and move the funds to the account. Then he would withdraw funds from the account whenever he needed money to pursue some personal end or corrupt agenda. Several sources revealed that Ohakim easily got the collaboration of temporary local government chairmen to make many JAAC payments and illegal withdrawals from this account.

Three of the other fraudulent accounts are held at the bank’s main regional branch office at Bank Road, Owerri.

Both bank and other sources told us that, in the week before the Supreme Court verdict, the account witnessed massive withdrawals to bribe Supreme Court justices. “The justices sold themselves to give Ohakim a favorable judgment in the case between him and Martins Agbaso,” said one source familiar with the financial gutting of Imo State.

In the same manner, Ohakim had made massive withdrawals from the funds of the Imo Road Rural Maintenance Agency (IRROMA) reportedly funded by United Bank of Africa to fund his electoral victory at the Port Harcourt tribunal.

We also learned that most of the Hilux cars and heavy-duty trucks purchased under the IRROMA project have been leased or donated to contractors with links to Ohakim – even though most of the beneficiaries are not doing rural road maintenance for Imo State. “The trucks were to be under the control of the local governments, but today, hardly does any local government in Imo State control any big truck,” said one of the local government officials.

Governor Ohakim, when he launched IRROMA, had claimed that his government donated 100 Hilux cars to police. But a top police source told Saharareporters that only about 50% of divisional police stations in the state’s 27 local governments got the Hilux pickups funded with LGA funds.

“Even school children in Imo State now know that Chief Ohakim is operating a 419 system of government,” said a top PDP leader in the state,” adding that “the so-called elders of the party, including Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, look the other way because they are settled.”

As a result of Mr. Ohakim’s unimpeded looting of the state treasury, Imo State is trapped under a serious debt burden. “When all interests and guarantees are considered, Imo State may well owe in excess of N500 billion in long term loans including bank bond guarantees,” said one source within the government. One of the state finance officers knowledgeable about the various loan scams wondered aloud: “How can a state that gets between N2 and 4b afford to repay more than N500b?”

An Imo State politician said, “the next 25 to 40 years look bleak for Imo state as a result of one man’s greed.”

Another source said it had dawned on Imo indigenes that they had allowed a “common criminal” to take over their state. “As the reality dawns on us, we’re now asking ourselves, ‘what was the job or occupation of Ohakim before he became Governor?’ ‘Where was Ohakim’s office situated in Nigeria before he became Governor of Imo state, and whom did he employ or work for?’ The answer lies in a simple fact: that Ohakim was a petty criminal who engaged in criminal fraud known as ‘419’ before he became governor.”

A week before the Supreme Court decision, Mr. Ohakim relocated to Abuja to maintain close contact with Supreme Court justices, a security source revealed. “He recruited some emirs to help him reach and secure the justices,” added the source.

A few days before the verdict, other Imo State officials, including the Accountant General, Commissioner of Finance, and the Commissioner for Local Government, Kezie Ogaziechi (who is also chairman of JAAC), were ordered by the governor to arrive Abuja. Our sources revealed that the officials had two missions: to manage the funds for bribing the justices or to help empty the state’s treasury if the justices would not accept Ohakim’s offer.

“These officials were all stationed in Abuja as of July 15, 2010, while the state was left in a depressed mood,” said a source in Owerri. He added, “Authentic contractors in Imo are dying, civil servants are being owed salaries, while the profits of UBA and other banks soar, due to many fraudulent Irrevocable Supply and Payment Order (ISPOs) that Ohakim signed.

Our investigations revealed that there are over 20 fraudulent ISPOs drawing monthly from JAAC funds deposited in BankPHB accounts. “These are payments made to non-existent, questionable or fake companies,” said a government source.

All our sources contended that Ohakim had rendered the local government sole administrators useless and powerless. “The sole administrators are puppets and rubberstamps,” said one of our sources. The Commissioner for Local Government Areas, Kezie Ogaziechi, was jobless before Ohakim appointed him. “Today, he is a billionaire,” said a source at BankPHB.

The majority of Ohakim’s commissioners and special advisers are reportedly dismayed by the governor’s style of governance. “Imo is run like a family business by Ohakim, his wife and his brother,” said one source. “None of the commissioners can initiate or award any contract, and they don’t even receive monies in a timely manner to run the ministries or pay salaries,” said a disaffected permanent secretary.

Ohakim’s Government House controls every contract. Commissioners are often compelled to meet Emma Ohakim, the governor’s younger brother and deputy Chief of Staff, to discuss their needs and concerns. “When it comes to contracts, Emma Ohakim will ask the commissioners to sign and they must sign, without even reading what they are signing or even getting a copy to keep,” said a top government source.

UBA (United Bank for Africa) reportedly controls the state’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) account and virtually all the ISPOs made from FAAC funds. Ohakim has issued the bank ISPOs for such scam projects as the Petrol chemicals plant, a refinery, Oguta Wonder Lake Resort, the failed mass transit scheme, and N18 billion in bond funds with three other banks. Altogether, the loans, fees, guarantees and interest charges cost Imo State over N500 billion.

Several sources named Ray Ahumibe, the regional manager for UBA’s Mbari Street branch (where the FAAC account is hosted), as a huge beneficiary from the bank’s questionable deals with the Ohakim government. “He has been enriched with government land allocations and was promoted from manager to regional manager due to the shady deals his bank is doing with the state,” said a source.

An Imo indigene in Abuja told Saharareporters that the tragic thing about UBA’s relationship with Ohakim is that “these deals UBA is financing do not exist nor are competitors allowed nor are they published for due process.” The source added: “Ohakim’s desperation and thirst for money, has been a blessing for UBA, which is ready to lend anytime, any minute so long as FAAC is a collateral. So once the money from FAAC arrives, UBA pockets. UBA has taken Imo state to the cleaners, with Ohakim’s permission.”

An Imo official told us that other banks in the state envy UBA. “They wonder, ‘why would UBA and BankPHB who control the FAAC and JAAC [respectively], also control all the loans issued with ISPOs? What have the two banks done for Imo state?’”

Another area of abuse is the Millennium Development Goals, which is operated by Amselem Okorie, Ohakim’s special adviser on Economic Affairs and other close relatives of the governor. “These individuals, in the process of converting the MDGs funds into the governor’s coffers, have also enriched themselves,” said a source.

One special adviser, Chukwem Onuoha, is Ohakim’s kinsman and operates from South Africa. “What is a special adviser employed in Imo State, the seat of government, doing in South Africa, with full compensation and living supports paid by Imo state?” asked a top PDP member in Owerri. He and other sources said it was widely known that Mr. Onuoha “helps Chief Ohakim to funnel state funds abroad.”

A distressed lawyer from Imo State told Saharareporters, “There is no state in Nigeria where the looting is as massive as Imo state, and directly controlled by the governor, his wife and brother Emma Ohakim.”

Several indigenes told us that Ohakim has pocketed members of the state assembly, ensuring that they exercise no oversight over his looting and other criminal activities. Last month, Ohakim, in his quest to bribe the lawmakers, gave each of them funds to build one borehole and one toilet in their respective local government areas. The funds are to be drawn from the MDGs account.

Other MDGs contracts have been given to Amselem Okorie and fake contractors. “Over N4billion of MDGs funds have been misused so far,” said a knowledgeable source. Okorie and Ohakim’s other fronts secure the contracts, then get legitimate contractors to accept 25 to 50% of the sum of the contract. “However, the contractor has to sign a note that he or she was paid 100%. Failure to sign, the contractor would be delisted,” said a source.

The consequence of these fraudulent moves is that most contracts for toilets, bore holes, and hospital renovations, awarded at ridiculous amounts, are littered all over the state without completion.

“The contractors usually cash the checks and return the balance to Mr. Amselem Okorie, for onward transmission to Emma Ohakim,” said one of our sources. He added that “contractors are told that the reason they are getting less was because the Government House said so.”

Our sources revealed that a bank official at Fidelity Bank, Ikenegbu Rd, where the MDGs funds are lodged, noticed all the abuses and alerted the special advisor Amselem Okorie.

Okey Opara, a kinsman of Ohakim’s, is a manager at the Ikenegbu Rd branch of Fidelity Bank. As a result, Ohakim has an easy job of turning the MDG funds into a slush pool of corruption. The governor’s financial greed has led to the widespread failure of MDG projects in the state.

Many of Ohakim’s financial abuses are perpetrated through the Ministry of Works. Ms. Comfort Chukwu, who is also from the governor’s area, heads the ministry. “Other commissioners fear Comfort Chukwu because she is romantically linked to Chief Ohakim,” said a prominent PDP member in Imo. Ms. Chukwu, who nurses senatorial ambitions, has reportedly gutted funds from her ministry on behalf of the governor and herself.

Commissioner for Agriculture, Longinus Anyanwu, is also a big player in Ohakim’s elaborate money laundering schemes. Anyanwu and other Ohakim cronies import fertilizers meant for farmers in Imo, only to sale them to farmers in Northern Nigeria at great personal profit.

“There is no avenue to make money that the Ohakims have not captured,” said a member of a watchdog group that monitors some of the shenanigans in Imo State. He added, “It’s as if the entire state belongs to them to do whatever they want, and with the Imo House of Assembly looking the other way in their oversight function.”

Other sources told us that the governor and his cohorts have grabbed virtually all of the state’s prize lands. One source revealed that “Steve Onu, the director for lands, was once invited to the Government House and asked to produce the open space list.” He was then instructed to allocated choice areas to the governor’s family, bypassing Jude Njoku, then Commissioner for Land. Jude Njoku was later reassigned to serve as Commissioner for Education. “Today, any open land in the New Owerri belongs to the Ohakims, using several fictitious names,” revealed a source in the Ministry of Lands.

All our sources painted a grim picture of life in Imo. Apart from failed MDG projects, the local government areas have no funds to pay the salaries of civil servants or run the local governments. “Since the LGA sole administrators do not have enough to pay salaries and meet other needs, they become selective in what they spend money on. The balance ends in their pocket.”

One indigene of Imo State in Abuja told our reporter: “For all the contracts Ohakim’s government has awarded, let him show Imo State where and what they are.”

http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/governor-ikedi-ohakim%E2%80%99s-looting-spree-continues

Yet, the people of Imo state did not put him in power.

the person you should blame for this is Udenwa and his cronies i will tell you why.

PrinceEmek:

Granted, the foregoing article can only amount to accusations and allegations, not meeting the burden of proof. However, you must admit there is enough in there to raise an eye brow or two. I’m not privy to the running of government affairs in Imo, my home state. But I cannot help but wonder: if the politicians look the other way, what about the judiciary? Whatever happened to the media in the state? Have the reporters, journalists, editors, anchormen, and broadcasters gone AWOL also?

They are mostly compromised.

I have no love for Ohakim, but Saharareporters style of "Sources told us" or "we were told by some sources" is not commendable either.

If you can't name your sources, then provide real evidence for your allegations.

@texazzpete
tell us the full name of the girl u always have s*ex with and if u're girl, vice versa. Nincompoop!

and he goes on TV, saying imo state is @ par
a complete 419er
chei who is going to deliver naija
who?

We're tired of hearing all these allegations. Where are the facts. Sahara Reporters, that's all they know, denting peoples image.

I'm not a fan of ohakim, but I do believe in facts, Let them prove it.

@prince
u're intact!

Pls, we want to see facts, SAHARA REPORTERS! How can my state owe N500 billion? How much is the state revenue for 3 years? Even banks dont have that kind of money to lend away to a state, How much is Nigeria as a nation owing sef? Pls, write real stuff on ohakim and not these junk!

U should also be aware of the international and local loan sources with obnoxious accruals of interests which the state is expected to offset piecemeal but have nefariously deferred the debt management to be obligations of subsequent administrations.