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From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Imo state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) has demanded for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the All Progressives Congress( APC) Senatorial candidate for Imo East (Owerri zone) , Prince Alex Mbata over his indictment by the State government white paper over his award of contracts awards while serving as the Pro – Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of the Imo State University ( IMSU) during the Okorocha’s administration.
Recall that the administration of Ihedioha had setup a Visitation Panel headed by former Vice Chancellor of University Nigeria, Prof Chinedu Nebo to investigate the stagnation of the institution between 2012 and 2019.
In paragraph of the white paper later released in 5.1 entitled ‘Abandoned Building Contracts’, indicted Chief Alex Mbata who reasons best known to then as Chairman of Council, replaced 3-D Consultant with Mayfair Projects Ltd, contrary to laid down procedures by TETFUND.
In a press statement signed by the State Publicity Secretary ,Mr.Collins Opuruzor ,is demanding for the arrest of Prince Alex Mbata , the APC senatorial candidate for Imo East for his involvement in monumental contract fraud under his tenure as the Pro – Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing council of the state owned university .
The PDP alleged that Prince Mbata has been desperately trying to distort records and bend history to hide his ugly past
The statement which read in part said : The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State is alarmed at the desperate attempts by the APC Senatorial Candidate for Imo East, Mr. Alex Mbata, to distort records and bend history in order to hide his questionable past.
‘Curiously, while trying to exonerate himself from the scam, the only defense Mr. Mbata could come up with was that he has always been a rich man, and that he has also been a man of charity who has constructed a 5-kilometer road for his village people. This is not just watery and puerile, it is also begs the question about the source of Mr. Mbata’s slush funds.”
Mr Opuruzor pointed that history is replete with instances of notorious fraudsters and criminals who had sought to shield their infamy with apparent deeds of charity.
“Lawrence Anini, the infamous bandit who terrorized Benin City, was known to be spraying money in the streets after each successful bank robbery. American fraudster, Al Capone, even went as far as building free soup kitchens where he fed over five thousand people during the Great Depression in America. German tyrant, Adolf Hitler, even while killing over six million Jews, made a law prohibiting the killing of animals. So, doing charity is not a defense for weighty allegations of fraud.”
Continuing , ” Imo PDP therefore feels deeply pained that the efforts made by the Rebuild Imo Administration of the Party in the State to sanitize IMSU and upscale the institution’s infrastructure and pedagogy have been rolled back by the regime of Senator Hope Uzodimma. Worse still, those who should be brought to book over their filthy roles in the collapse of that citadel of learning have now been decorated with APC tickets by Uzodimma, and they are now fouling up the media spaces to hoodwink the masses. As far as Imo PDP is concerned, what Uzodimma intends to achieve through the morbid and sinful senatorial ticket, which he singlehandedly handed over to Mr. Mbata, is to institutionalize corruption in Imo State, while reducing the Nigerian Senate to a sanctuary of fraudsters.
Statement further stated , “It is pertinent to remind Imo people that, in keeping with the vision of the PDP to build an educational robust Imo State, one of the earliest observations which our Rebuild Imo Administration made upon assumption of office was the pedagogical and infrastructural inadequacies of Imo State University, Owerri. In view of that, the PDP Government set up a Visitation Panel to expose the issues that had hampered that institution. Mr. Mbata was Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of IMSU and was appointed by the APC regime in 2014. The Visitation Panel, which was headed by Venerable (Prof.) Chinedu Nebo, investigated the issues between 2012 and 2019.
Imo PDP therefore demands immediate arrest and prosecution of Mr. Mbata so as to ascertain his role in the non-execution of the projects funded under his watch as Pro Chancellor and which consultant he was indicted to have unduly replaced.”
However, in swift reaction , the Imo East Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prince Alex Mbata, has denied ever being indicted by the visitation panel headed by Prof while he served as the Pro – Chancellor and he was never indicted by any White paper on Imo State University, IMSU, accusing the opposition and a failed APC Owerri zone senatorial aspirant of sponsoring a faceless group to publish falsehood on his person in the media.
Mbata, in a statement signed by his Media Adviser, Innocent Onyeukwu, stated that he was never indicted by the IMSU Whitepaper report, insisting that the Visitation Panel headed by Prof Chinedu Nebo to IMSU, never confronted him with any petitions, allegations or questions when he was invited in March 2020, to give account of his stewardship when he was pro Chancellor of the University.
