George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Leadership of the State chapter of the People’s Democratic party has said that the immediate past governor of the state , Chief Emeka Ihedioha is not afraid of giving account of his stewardship to the people of the state that had voted him into Office.
The party pointed out that the ex- governor has sought for the intervention of court as it was apparent that the condition precedent for the House of Assembly to assume jurisdiction to investigate the interim Auditor’s Report had not been met.
The State  Secretary of the party , Hon. Nze Ray Emeana who stated this on Tuesday during a press conference , noted that the processes and procedures adopted by the State Assembly in investigating the purported missing N 19. 63 Billion which excluded members of the PDP Lawmakers from the Public Accounts committee smacks witch  Hunt and smear campaign against  ex- governor ,Emeka Ihedioha.
” It was therefore surprising and smelt of a kangaroo proceedings for the Imo state House of Assembly to purport to invite officials of government during governor Ihedioha’s period of service to come to the House of Assembly to explain the whereabouts of the so called missing N19.63 Billion . Indeed , the debate of the motion to investigate the interim audit report at the House of Assembly showed extreme bias and a clear premeditated case of witch Hunt, without any pretence to impartiality and objectivity”
According to him , ” It is instructive to note that Rochas Okorocha was the Imo state Governor from January 1,2019 to May 28 ,2019 . Whereas , Chief Emeka Ihedioha was the Imo state governor from May 29,2019 to December 31 ,2019 that the interim audit report covered. It should be noted that of the N 19 . 63 Billion LGA expenditures in question, approximately N16 Billion was expended between January 1 to May 28, 2019 , during the administration of Rochas Okorocha. It that only the sum of approximately N3.7 Billion that was spent by the 27 councils between May 29, 2019 to December 31,2019 during the administration of Governor Ihedioha”.
The party maintained that the only  money that the Ihedioha administration  should account for is N3 .7 Billion of the  LGAs funds.
“So, effectively ,  it is the expenditure of N3.7 Billion that the LGAs during the administration of Governor Ihedioha should account for , not 19.63 Billion as being bandied about everywhere , by the current Commissioner of Information acting on behalf of Governor Hope Uzodimma of APC . the remaining sum of approximately N16 billion should be accounted for by the regime of former governor Rochas Okorocha.
Ihedioha is not afraid of any probe or does he intend to stop any probe rather he is out to establish that the rule of law, due process and fairplay are applied in the entire process “.