The former governor of Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim has declared
that people are not only peddling false rumours about him, but also his life is
in danger. Mr. Ohakim said this in a statement circulated to the media today.
Continue reading…
Following some recent developments around my person and the
avalanche of misinformation and deliberate lies being peddled about me, I am
constrained to issue this statement, first to douse anxiety of every
well-meaning fellow who has shown concern and second, to alert members of the
Nigerian public to a clear danger to my life.
NEWSPAPER REPORTS
On June 1, 2015, I
travelled out of the country by LH 595 operated by Lufthansa with seat number
04K to honour a medical appointment and also attend my daughter’s graduation at
the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. On June 02, 2015, a newspaper posted
a headline that I had been apprehended and taken to custody by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for fraud and misappropriation of public
funds.
On inquiry, I discovered that the story was taken to the
newspaper in question by an aide of a top politician in my state, Imo.
Instructively, the story was carried by only the newspaper in question. A few
days later, the same aide of the supposedly top politician took another fake
news to some media houses that I sneaked abroad to dispose of my properties
because of bankruptcy.
THE PETITION AGAINST ME
What is playing out
began with a petition against me to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) by the same desperate politician in my state. The petition
was written by a group he fabricated that goes by the name, Alliance For Good
Governance. Those who are conversant with the politics of Imo state would
recall that it was this same group that constituted itself into a vicious
gang-up against my administration. It was this group, the Alliance For Good
Governance, that sold the lie that I molested a Catholic Priest in Imo state.
It was the same group that carried out the failed public
demonstration against me in front of the EFCC Headquarters in Abuja. It was the
same group, led by this same politician, that was used by those who were bent
on denying me my victory at the April 26, 2011 governorship election, to kidnap
an INEC returning officer, one Mr. Ngozi Nwoko, and took him to Bolingo Hotel,
Onitsha, Anambra state, where he was locked up, thus preventing him from
turning in the results from Ohaji-Egbema local government area which put me in
a clear lead. The kidnap of Mr. Nwoko was the first script that led to the
so-called supplementary election of May 6, 2011 during which the final script
was acted out.
One of the issues raised in the petition was the same
carried in similar petitions shortly after I left office four years ago. For
example, the petitioners demanded, among other things, that I should be
investigated for misappropriating the proceeds from the N18.5billion draw-down
from the Imo N40 billion Development Bond which my administration issued in
2010.
Faced with the severe financial crunch of 2008 – 2010, my
administration mustered the discipline and secured a N40b Development Bond in
2010 with a first tranche draw-down of N18.5b. Before we left office, we
serviced our obligation to investors for the first tranche of the bond to the
tune of N10.1b (principal + interest) and we left behind the sum of N13.3
billion from it, being part of the total of N26.6 billion we handed over to the
succeeding administration. Up till this moment, the administration that took
over from mine has not denied that I left behind N26.6 billion including the
N13.3 billion from the Bond proceeds. And on this score, I challenge anybody,
whether in government or outside government, to controvert this assertion.
Even so, let me refer to a statement credited to the current
administration through its Commissioner for Finance and as reported in the
Daily Sun Newspaper of Wednesday January 23, 2013, page 10. The report quoted
the Commissioner as saying that “the previous administration of Ikedi Ohakim
had secured a bond of N18 billion for capital projects such as roads, water and
Oguta Wonder Lake, but when we came to power, we decided to prioritize our
projects. Out of the N18 billion that was secured, about N6 billion had been
spent and we met only N12.5 billion and we convened a meeting of all
stakeholders and got their approval to approach SEC to change the use of the
fund”.
The report further stated that the Commissioner disclosed
that “the balance of the bond proceeds were channeled into critical areas of
infrastructure development such as the building of 305 classroom blocks,
building of ultra-modern general hospitals in the 27 local government areas of
the state and construction of vital roads across the local government areas,
informing that works were currently going simultaneously in the various
communities”. Need I say more?
CLONING MY VOICE
Part of the script is
to set me up against the federal authorities especially those manning the
security agencies. I have it on good authority that, again, my voice has been
cloned in a purported interview I granted to a radio station in which I
supposedly lambasted some top federal government officials, including those
heading the security agencies. The tape of this fake interview was then handed
over to some of these key Federal Government officials.
While I do not necessarily link this development with a recent
incident with the EFCC, there can be no doubt that the intention is to put me
on a destructive collision course with the federal authorities. But I believe
this plot will also fail because those top government functionaries being
targeted are not vulnerable to such evil machinations and antics. Still, I feel
it is important to alert fellow Nigerians to this practice which is however not
new in my state, Imo. Apart from that this method was massively deployed
against me prior to the 2011 general election. Another former governor of the
state and an elder statesman, also from the state, recently suffered a similar
fate in the hands of these criminals using the same trick.
Apart from voice cloning, these elements are also experts in
forging signatures. They did it in 2010 when they forged the signatures of a
prominent Catholic Archbishop, an Anglican Bishop and other prominent political
leaders in the state in a petition against me to the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. But the plot failed because the latter, upon
investigation, discovered that the Archbishop, the Bishop and the leaders in
question never wrote any petition. The discovery was also to the bewilderment
of those highly regarded top clergymen and leaders. I advise other public figures
in the entire country to be on the watch because this habit is capable of
spreading.
THE DRAMA OF JUNE 18, 2015
Finally, let me seize
this opportunity to make some clarifications over my so called arrest by the
EFCC on Thursday June 18 2015. As a law-abiding citizen, I will always make
myself available to any investigative agency because I have absolutely nothing
to fear. However, let me seize this opportunity to state that it is high time
we stopped trying to create disord between vital agencies of government like
the EFCC and pubic officers, past or present. The agencies are there to do
their jobs. Orchestrating newspaper reports on their legitimate lines of
actions gives the erroneous impression that the agencies and their officials
are out to witch-hunt. This is unfortunate and, in my view, it is one of the
major reasons why there is so much myth about the accountability by public
office holders.
On the incident of Thursday, June 18, 2015, I would submit,
with the highest sense of responsibility, that the drama was unnecessary. I
never evaded invitation by the agency. This can be corroborated by the
statement made by the commission’s spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, as quoted in
the media: “We were expecting a former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim,
today (Wednesday) to come and shed light on some issues in an old case we have
been investigating. We are about rounding off the investigation and we need him
to clarify some issues but he didn’t show up; he may still come today or
tomorrow” (see Daily Sun of Wednesday, June 17, 2015; page 13). So, the
question is, if the commission knew or realized that I could still “come today
or tomorrow”, why the drama just the following morning?
In other words, the admission that they were still expecting
me “today or tomorrow” negates the impression created by a section of the media
that I was avoiding arrest. It means that by the time the spokesman made that
statement on Wednesday June 17, 2015, I was not yet a subject for arrest;
notwithstanding the fact that I was at the headquarters of the commission the
same Wednesday, June 17, 2015 to submit a letter asking for more time in view
of my health challenges; and which letter was duly acknowledged.
There is no intention here to pitch my words against that of
the commission which, as I noted earlier, is doing its legitimate duties. But I
am compelled to make this clarification in order to erase the impression that
Ikedi Ohakim was evading “arrest”. Let me repeat for the umpteenth time that I
have no reason, whatsoever, to evade interrogation by any anti-corruption
agency in Nigeria, or anywhere in the world, concerning my tenure as governor
of Imo State.
CONCLUSION
Throughout my tenure as governor, we never hunted political
opponents. There was no political assassination, no arson, no official of
government disappeared. There was no impeachment of any kind or threat of
impeachment. No senatorial zone complained of marginalization. No contract failed.
No contractor ran away with the state’s funds. There was labour harmony. We
never owed salaries as we made payment of salaries a first line charge. In
short, there was law and order and Imo worked on one page.
But contrary to the goodwill that existed while I was in
office, I have since become an object of attacks and ridicule. Nigerians will
recall that on May 15, 2014, directly after I declared interest to re-contest
the governorship election of my state, my only house in Owerri was bombed in
what was evidently, an attempt to assassinate me. As I write this statement, my
portrait is still missing from amongst those of other former governors in a
gallery created for that purpose at the Government House, Owerri.
Still, let me state that in spite of the misadventure of
some of these elements who see me as their only obstacle to ‘greatness’, I
remain committed to the peace, progress and stability of Imo state in
particular and Nigeria in general. I have implicit confidence that the vision,
dedication, fear of God and honesty of purpose with which I served my people
shall vindicate me.
To God Be The Glory.
IKEDI OHAKIM
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