Barely 24 hours after the just gone Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, said he would be handing over N42.5bn to his successor, Emeka Ihedioha, a top official of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), now ruling party in the state, has chided him.
The top official, who pleaded anonymity in an interview, averred that “If an Okorocha can announce that he has approved and released N150m to us for the planning of handover inauguration and we never saw any kobo, then trusting him on leaving N42.5bn in office for Imo State is useless”.
“However, if there is anything left by the now former governor, we trace it to the last minute freeze of Imo State accounts by the anti-graft agency if you can remember.
“The truth is that Okorocha and his team never gave us any form of assistance throughout the build up to the May 29 inauguration. You may have been aware that we met the prestigious Dan Anyiam in a sorry state and refurbished it for the inauguration. The stadium had been there unattended to throughout Okorocha’s eight years administration.
According to him, “If we can while being not yet in government put back the stadium to shape in less than two weeks, it means, like His Excellency, Hon Emeka Ihedioha said, “PDP’ll return Imo to the glory it lost in the last eight years.”
Defending why he left the N42.5bn, former Governor Okorocha noted that he decided to keep the money for the incoming governor so that there would not be excuses in carrying out government’s activities.
Okorocha spoke while inaugurating 11 new permanent secretaries, including the new Accountant-General and Permanent Secretary, Donald Igbo; and the new Head of Service, Mrs Ngozi Eluma.
Details of his financial claims showed that whereas about N8.1bn was meant for the payment of salaries and capital projects, N5.2bn was for pension arrears which he earlier promised to clear but did not.
Others according to him included N7.6bn meant for the renovation of schools, while N21.6bn was for rural roads.
However, the PDP had made it clear that it would take time to understudy the financial activities of the Okorocha administration before making any strategic statement on what they saw and met very soon.
