The former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, recently boosted that he never took his salary when he was govenror, and has ignored his salary as a senator.
It didn’t come as a surprise to many, especially people living in Imo State.
Okorocha, as Imo governor had received about ₦26billion as bailout fund, which was supposed to be used to offset arrears of pensions and salaries in the state.
Interestingly, Senator Hope Uzodinma would meet unpaid pensions of almost ₦50billion, and that was because for the eight years Okorocha ruled Imo State, pensioners did not receive a Kobo from him.
Imo became the capital for pensioners protest, as they wept and cried for their sweat, but Okorocha refused to pay them, despite collecting ₦26billion for that same purpose.
What then happened to the money? Where did it go to?
The publisher of WatchDog Newspaper, Mr. Precious Nwadike exposed the disappearance of part of that money, which was probably converted to dollars (Senator Hope Uzodinma confirmed it), and kept in Uche Nwosu’s house.
According to Nwadike, some members of Uche Nwosu’s staff, made away with the hard currency, which was part of the bailout fund.
Uche Nwosu, using the executive power of his father-in-law, tried to bully Nwadike to silence but failed.
Till date, Okorocha is yet to give account of what he did with the money he received as bailout for Imo State, which we are paying back for today.
When Senator Hope Uzodinma is angry with Uzodinma, he has good reason to. Why must we be paying back money we did not eat?
TheCity People also recalls that Okorocha received from the Federal Government, hundreds of billions of naira, as our share from the Paris Club refunds.
What did Okorocha do with Imo’s share of the money? How many roads did he build with it? How many pensioners did he pay? Or did the money grow wings and fly out of Imo State account, and into some people’s pockets?
Okorocha’s is yet to tell us.
In eight years, Okorocha received over ₦2trillion in allocations, oil derivatives and grants, yet he left an Imo tottering at the brink of collapse and scattered with statues as his only achievements.
In less than two years in office, Uzodinma have managed to rescue Imo from the brink of collapse where Okorocha left it, despite the debts, judgmental debts and pitfalls Okorocha left for him.
Despite all the money Okorocha collected and with nothing to show for his eight years reign other than over ₦150 billion in domestic debts alone, one can understand why Okorocha doesn’t need a govenror’s salary of less than ₦3million monthly or a senator’s salary of ₦13million per annum.
