From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Rochas Okorocha, the Senator representing Imo West Senatorial district at the 9th Nigerian Senate and former Governor of Imo State, on Thursday cried to President Muhammadu Buhari, where he sought his intervention to prevail on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC to halt further harassment on his person.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after, he met with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa shortly before he left for Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for the 35th Ordinary Session of Assembly of the African Union Heads of State and Government, the Presidency, Okorocha lamented that notwithstanding a subsisting court order restraining the EFCC from prosecuting him, the agency has continued to harassed him hence his visit to seek the Presidenti’s help to caution the authorities against crossing the lines.
Recall that shortly after Okorocha publicly declared intention to contest for presidency in 2023, the EFCC reportedly filed a 17-count fraud charges against him at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
In the charges, Okorocha, was alleged to have embezzled N2.4billion in public funds through connivance with some individuals and companies.
He told newsmen that he decided to meet with Buhari to intervene on his behalf, on the grounds that he wants justice to be done on his matter, even as he also sought the immediate release of his international passport still being held by the EFCC officials.
According to him, it is the responsibility of Buhari as President of Nigeria to ensure that justice is served on all citizens including this matter.
According to Okorocha, “The President said he would take up the matter, especially when he saw the judgment. He said, he’ll take up the matter and find out what is actually happening. And I hope he will do so. And I believe he will do that.”
On whether he suspects his ordeal was being orchestrated by his detractors, the former Imo Governor said “I suspect so. Because why I say it is politically motivated means that some people are insitigating the EFCC to do this, which is wrong. All I’m asking from the EFCC is to please obey the law.
“And you cannot refuse to obey the law on one side, and then go for the law on the other side. So, if EFCC obeys the law, it will be the best thing they can do for the image of the EFCC and the image of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“But as to who particularly, the person must be such a coward who doesn’t want to expose himself. And there are people like that who wouldn’t want to expose themselves but stay under doing all kinds of things. I call them coward, because they stand up to what they believe in. My suspicion at this point is immaterial. What is more important is that the EFCC should obey a simple court judgment and court order, as the case may be.
On why he chose to seek Buhari’s intervention given the President’s strict disposition for principles especially in the fight against corruption, he said:
“One of the duties of a president is to protect the law of the land. And when an issue comes to an issue of judgment the duty is incumbent on the government of the day to ensure that justice is done.
“I came to demand for justice that you should prevail and as the custodian, as the leader of our nation, he should be made to know that such is going on. I didn’t come here to say, I don’t want to be investigated by the EFCC. That’s not the issue, that there’s judgment on the ground.
“There’s judgment and there’s order of court that I’m asking Mr. President, who appointed the EFCC to recall that there was the law that established the EFCC. And if that law is good to make somebody EFCC, that law should be obeyed, too.
On whether he has done enough consultations and sought state Governor’s blessing for his 2023 Presidential ambition, Okorocha replied: “It is not for the governor to to decide who becomes President, we’re talking about the people. Even the governor himself will depend on the people to do so. My first consultation after seeing Mr. President now is to go to Nigerians and ask them if they want me to be their President. And it’ll be my next line of action. And of course I’ll visit the six geopolitical zones, and inquire from them if they think I’m fit and proper to be their President.
“And if they consider that it will go a long way. But what is important at this moment, why I came out, to even dream of becoming or running for the office of the President is because of the mood of the nation.
“I may not be the appropriate President 20 years ago, when I first ran, maybe I’m not being appropriate President 20 years to come, but the mood of the nation, cause that somebody that possesses my qualities, and credentials should be made to lead this country, not not for self aggrandizement.
“Because this is a mistake most people make. They think that when you want to run for President, there’s something in there for you. I don’t know what others’ ambition is, what is driving me is my vision and passion to make great this nation is my vision and passion to make sure we strengthen the unity of this country.
“It is my passion and vision to create wealth for this country with my business experience. That there might be enough resources to engage the use of this land, that issue of insurgency will be a thing of the past. These are some of the areas this is my passion. But one part of me the carnal part of me says ‘Listen must you become president?’ but that passion and vision is what is driving me into this aspiration of wanting to be President of Nigeria.
On the general insecurity in the south was and the issues relating to Uche Nwosu in Imo state, Okorocha said:
“I want to tell you about what happened in the case of Uche Nwosu who by natural design became my in-law. He became my in-law as an adult. I wish he had spoken on this matter, himself. But you must be told that the case in question was an issue of abduction. And the police has confirmed that the policeman that went to the church, in mask and hood that abducted Uche Nwosu were police from the Government House, and they were under the directives of the government and the governor of Imo state, to carry out on that unholy act, which almost saw that gentleman a dead man.
“Again, I’ve met the IG of police on this matter and inquire to know, where is the justice. But I’ve been told that the Shaba, who is a CSO to the governor, DSP Shaba, has been arrested by the police. But I also learned that he has been long released.
“I’m also asking where is the justice. But also I’m told that, that the report has come to the presidency, and I’m still waiting for what this justice will say concerning this great act of inhumanity to man. Recall that Uche Nwosu was abducted, and his clothes removed or handcuffed sent to the whole world just to disgrace him. This is politics played too far, and must be condemned.
“So, whatever it is, when it goes beyond the ordinary, the President of the nation must be made to know what is happening around his government. And that’s precisely what we’re doing.
“The insecurity in the southeast region, I always say to people, wherever things are not working well, hold the leadership responsible. I was a governor of Imo state for eight years. And within that eight years, there was absolute peace in that land. The IPOP did exist. And all these additional forces did exist.”
He also alleged that the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma of being behind the sundry security breaches in his state, saying during his tenure as Governor for 8 years, he (Okorocha) was able to manage the security situation effectively.
“Whatever security breaches you are seeing in Imo state, whether IPOB or general crimes should be blamed on the incumbent government because it is failure of leadership,”he stated.
“Is the poor handling by the state government that orchestrated…… that has left many dead, and has left the whole nation in confusion, and showing some kind of ethnic declines that seem to divide the Igbos from others. It is poor Handling.
“If I had remained the governor of the state at this time, you won’t hear what you’re hearing. So it is for handling. The IPOB are our young men, our sons and daughters, and let no Igbo man tell you that these young men are not our sons and daughters.
“They’re our children. Our children who believe that the Nigerian nation does not like them, our children who believe that have been marginalized in terms of infrastructures, appointments, and they’ve been going on with these songs for a very, very long time. They believe this. But we’re able to assuage them and give them confidence that things will get better.
“And that was brought in when they formed a new leadership under Kanu that exercabated the whol;e thing into what it is today. But there was absolutely no need to have handled the IPOB Matter the way it was handled. In the first place, bringing the Air Force and the Army into the matter. Raiding from the air was wrong and completely wrong. Asking the airforce to take a fighter jet to go to war and my senatorial zone in Orlu to fight young men, that was wrong. Just as it is also wrong for this young man to have gone to the police headquarters and shooting and killing people.
“I don’t support any of them either. But what I’m talking about is approach and handling was the major mistake. Today they have turned out to be terrorists. But for me, I don’t see them as terrorists. I see them as children who have who have not been properly educated on the happenings.
“To an Igbo man now who has not eaten in the morning, he thinks the federal government and state government is responsible. Maybe he does not know that his counterpart in Katsina has stayed for a whole day without food.
“So these are points of education. That’s why we try to create this awareness before the people and let them do so. Issue of IPOB is neither here nor there. It’s a matter of handling and state government must take responsibility. and you see its worst in Imo. Why not in Abia, Anambra or Ebonyi. You hear very minor cases happening there. But the headquarter is Imo state.
“You forgot I was called Okoro Hausa for this reason. You forgot that the young man said they’re going to kill my parents, even as a governor, I engage them and made most of them surrender their arms through my IMO state pardon an amnesty programmme. Anytime things are not working please hold the leadership responsible in that particular state or that particular community. Leadership is everything.”
Okorocha said the decision to prescribe IPOB as terrorists by the federal government was needless action when the matter could have been properly handled by the authorities.
“It was a needless action to have even started. Something that you can handle and not allowed to escalate? If the federal government made them to call them terrorists it is the state government that made the recommendations and created that image that presented the boys as terrorists.”