THE PDP SHADOW GOVERNMENT WAS A GRAND PLOT BY IKPEAZU AND HIS ASSOCIATES TO COVER N500 BILLION LG FUNDS HEISTS.
The camp of Okezie Ikpeazu and his thieving cabal while in government were thrown into confusion on the 20th of November when Honorable Justice Bello Kawu of the FCT High Court judicial division granted an ex parte order following an application by one patriotic Abia citizen, Mr. Chidiebere Ojukwu to open trial of N500 Billion 17 Abia local governments funds from 2019 to 2023. The Honourable Justice Bello Kawu had ordered the EFCC to proceed to file the outcome of its investigation of the 17 Abia LG funds which was then gathering dust in its custody with the court register within one week or be held liable for contempt of court.
In the suit no. FCT/HC/4961/24 between Chidiebere Ojukwu and 4 others, Prince Christopher Enweremadu, a former Commissioner for Local Government, Erondu Uchenna Erondu, a former SA to Governor Ikpeazu and now Member of the State House of Assembly, Deaconess Joy Nwanju, a former Permsec in the Ministry of Local Government, and EFCC who investigated the matter as the 4th party defendant.
Honorable Justice Bello Kawu by granting this order has offered a new vista of opportunity for the new Abia government led by Dr. Alex Otti to join in the case and recover monies brazenly and criminally fleeced from Abia people.
It may be recalled that these thieving crew went to court last year to estoppel the Abia State Judicial Panel duly constituted by the government from summoning them to tell their own side of the stories as to how N500 Billion of Abia LG funds disappeared under their watch into thin air just between the three of them.
They used all manner of judicial acrobatics to rape Abia blind and are today laughing at all of us. But they won’t laugh last because Alex Otti was voted into power to equally use all manner of accounting and banking acrobatics to fish them out of their hideouts and covens. They won’t run for too long before the long arm of the law catches up with them. Now with this lawsuit, the chicken has come home to roost. The EFCC will no longer be allowed to keep the file of the investigation indefinitely to be gathering dust like many others before it concerning Abia graft cases in the past.
Abia politicians of mostly PDP rank and file are among the most vicious in the country when it comes to covering up their dirty corruption tracks. We have seen it play out in as many cases that were determined within Abuja judicial jurisdiction which ended with nothing to show for the huge efforts invested pursuing those cases. The political actors usually take the battle to Abuja where they hold the case files hostage with all manner of intentionality, metaphysics, voodooism, bribery, alchemy, sinister undertakings, and malfeasance. They are known not to take prisoners until the corruption case files and papers were rendered useless and dispossed of no effect.
But with this order of the court mandating the EFCC to surrender all its findings at court 14 of the FCT Judicial division Abuja, a new can of worms may metamorphose to equal or outstrip the much talked about Malabu papers of corruption and sleaze. The mainstream and social media in the last two days are already awash with the scandal which has kept the protagonists in sleepless nights necessitating their subplots using the orchestration of the Shadow Government narrative as a decoy to counter and distract the people.
The government of Dr. Alex Otti must be alive to its responsibilities by placing its legal machinery at high alert to follow this case to its logical conclusion. N500 Billion Naira when the exchange rate to the dollar averaged N400 was equivalent to a billion US dollars. That was what these guys stole from the state and just walked away unscratched and unscathed. We must all take collective responsibility to pursue the case until we recover the last penny of this mindless heist. Every Abian with information that could help Mr Chidiebere Ojukwu pursue this case at the courts must not hesitate to join in evidence.
The government of Dr. Alex Otti should gladly galvanize all powers within its reach to ensure a successful prosecution and recovery of the stolen wealth and resources belonging to Abians. A billion dollars could turn Abia to one of the most prosperous states in Nigeria. Let this landmark case be an eye opener to a renewed citizens actions to battle against graft and corruption in high places. May our New Abia prevail.
Dr. Engr Odo Ijere
