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Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in Diasporas (AESID) has passionately appealed to the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies to comprehensively probe the state’s financial records in the last 16 years.
In a statement issued in Abuja, the association’s President worldwide, Ambassador Pascal Oluchukwu, AESID insisted that the probe was necessitated by the alleged mismanagement of N2 billion loan given to the state government by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the leadership of David Nweze Umahi, for the 2016 farming season.
The association specifically called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Police to prosecute all those responsible for the state’s economic doldrums and impending dooms, starting with the Sam Egwu-led administration to the present Governor Dave Umahi-led government.
“We are aware that it all started with the courage and boldness of one of the enlightened citizens of the state and former Secretary to the Ebonyi State Government, Professor Benard Odoh, to hold the Umahi-led administration accountable especially with regards to the disturbing statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics which recently named our State as the third poorest in the federation and information from the Debt Management Office (DMO) which indicates that the present government has increased the State’s domestic and external borrowings.
“Already, Prof. Odoh had in his response to the allegations maintained that he had no hands in the disbursements of the said fund as his role was merely limited to providing strategic leadership for the supervising Ministry of Agriculture as then headed by Barr. Uchenna Orji as a Commissioner.
“After making startling disclosures to the effect that only a little over N900 million out of the total sum were released to the committee for disbursements and purchase of tractors, a seemingly confident Odoh has filed a petition to the anti-graft agency, the EFCC inviting it to probe all persons involved in the matter while also stunningly offering himself to be investigated.
“AESID as a non-governmental organization whose mandate is to protect and safeguard the interests and welfare of the common Ebonyian, we laud the steps taken so far by the former SSG, Odoh in reporting this matter to the EFCC which is indeed the appropriate body to investigate financial crimes and prosecute offenders as being in the right direction. This is because it is only reasonable that the accuser whose present and former appointees are also being questioned cannot be the judge in their own case,” the statement read.
Condemning what they described as witch-hunting, intimidations and harassments of the former SSG Prof. Odoh, the group said: “We strongly believe that the state would be saved from an impending economic doom if its financial records are holistically ascertained and offenders who have plundered its resources made to face the wraths of the law.
“There exist in our beloved state, many phony contracts and projects which have remained uncompleted several years after they were awarded till date while the contractors obviously live large on public funds meant for their executions. Also, many funds, grants and loans given the State which is still being repaid from the allocations as debts have remained largely unaccounted for.
“This has severely hampered developments on all fronts in critical sectors in the State such as; Education, Health, Agriculture, Economic and Human capacity developments and Empowerment, Youths and Sports development among several others.
“Despite the humongous sums and the fact that the government prides itself as investing heavily in the agricultural sector, we are terribly disappointed that our dear State only boasts of getting most of its rice from some northern and neighbouring States for milling and packaging as the ‘Abakaliki’ brand of local rice.
“Like the rest of Ebonyi people who have been made to believe that this step was meant to save cost for the government and the people, we demand to know, how much exactly have been saved by the government through this use of direct labours by the Umahi-led administration?
“To this end therefore, we also call on other anti-graft agencies such as the ICPC including the DSS, the Police and indeed, any agency responsible for law enforcement and justice implementation in Nigeria, to wade in and ensure that fairness and justice is not only seen to be done but actually done and the state’s looted resources recovered.
“It is our strong believe that this probe would be in the overall interest of the Ebonyi masses,” the statement read.
