I’m Innocent – Okorocha, Bail Hearing Holds May 31
- Court orders his remand in EFCC custody
BY EDMOND ODOK – Immediate Past Governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West in the National Assembly, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has pleaded not guilty to the 17-count money laundering charge preferred against him and six others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Appearing before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday, Okorocha mounted the dock around 9:35 am to take his plea alongside a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Anyim Nyerere Chinenye, and five companies.
The five firms are Naphtali International Limited; Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited; Consolid Projects Consulting Limited; Pramif International Limited; and Legend World Concepts Limited.
Responding to the charge read to him before the trial Judge, Senator Okorocha said: “I understand the charge against me, but I am not guilty my lord”.
Similarly, the other defendants also pleaded their innocence to the charge dated Monday, January 24, 2022.
The anti-graft agency is arraigning Okorocha, who ruled Imo state as Chief Executive from 2011 to 2019, for diverting public funds to the tune of about N2.9billion and the charge against him borders on conspiracy and stealing.
EFCC is alleging that the defendants sequentially siphoned funds from the Imo State Government House account and Imo State Joint Local Government Project account, and diverted same into accounts of private firms.
According to the Commission, all the defendants committed the alleged offence between October 2014 and February 2016.
Okorocha, who is aspiring to clinch the APC presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections, was arrested by EFCC operatives a few hours before the ruling party was set to screen its presidential candidates.
The lawmaker’s arrest followed an alleged refusal to make himself available for trial with the anti-graft agency accusing him of deliberately evading service of the charge on him.
However, on Monday, Okorocha’s lawyer, Mr. Okey Amaechi (SAN), prayed the court to release him on bail pending the determination of the case against him, even as he told the court that his client was roughened and arrested by the EFCC just before the APC’s presidential screening,
“My lord, without a warrant of arrest from this court, they went into the house of the defendant, broke into it, and arrested him in a Gestapo manner”, Amaechi said.
But the EFCC counsel, Mr Gbolahan Latona, informed the court that the Senator had raised some issues in his bail application that would require their response.
Justice Ekwo, who adjourned the matter to Tuesday, May 31, 2022, to hear the defendants’ bail applications, ordered they should remain in EFCC custody, pending the determination of their bail request.
Meanwhile, the court has equally fixed November 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 for the commencement of trial.
