The immediate past governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, has said that he and his wife didn’t take away 67 government vehicles as alleged by the committee set up by Governor Emeka Ihedioha to recover movable government assets of the state looted by the appointees of the immediate past administration.
A statement issued in Owerri by Sam Onwuemeodo, media aide to Okorocha, said that the ex-governor was being blackmailed. The statement read partly “We challenge Governor Emeka Ihedioha and his appointees to publish the list and particulars of these 67 vehicles and the details of the N50bn the former governor and the wife made away with vis-à-vis other items thereto. And we give them seven days to do the publication or bend their heads downward in shame. We also challenge them to publish the properties the former appointees left, either as a group or as individuals. The burden to publish evidence of all these claims is now on Governor Ihedioha and his appointees.
“We equally want to ask that they harmonise their claims because almost all the key appointees of the WhatsApp and Facebook government in the state have made their diverse claims on these issues, to the extent that nobody knows who among them should be believed. They should harmonise their claims before the publication. The governor himself had made his own claim talking about cars and N70bn taken away. The chief of staff of the governor had equally claimed that the former governor left with 31 vehicles and about N40bn.”
He urged Nigerians to ignore the state officials until they publish what they had claimed, “since the burden or the yoke of proof is always on the neck of the accuser.”
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