By Olusegun Olanrewaju and Linus Aleke
After an alleged “order from above”, the Maitama, Abuja residence of former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, was yesterday turned into a theatre of war by security agents on an anti-corruption enforcement drive.
Officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided the house of the senator eyeing Nigeria’s presidency and finally succeeded in whisking him off to answer sundry charges allegedly aligned with a financial and economic misdemeanor.
Operatives of the anti-graft agency stormed Okorocha’s residence at dusk, barricading it, and ensuring that no member of the Okorocha family left the compound until they produced their target.
There was a commotion as EFCC operatives fired tear gas into the premises, and people scampered helter-skelter, amid the confusion stoked in the wake of the ‘invasion’.
Journalists, who have massed to witness a press conference, fled to safety.
Initially, the engagement of the EFCC operatives with suspected aides of Okorocha appeared peaceful, until a contingent of policemen joined and entered the yard.
Security operatives fired teargas into the compound to disperse protesters at Okorocha’s residence.
The protesters, mainly women, had arrived at the besieged Abuja residence of the politician at about 5:20pm to protest the hold on the house by security men.
The operatives were acting on the behest of the anti-graft agency, EFCC, which said it was on the premises to arrest Okorocha because he jumped bail and had avoided court summons.
According to reports, before the security operatives dispersed the protesters, one of them carried a bell and chanted slogans in support of the former governor.
“We no go gree. Rochas is the father of the fatherless. He has built schools in Jos and across the nation. He is our incoming president,” a woman was recorded as saying.
Witnesses say the protest was peaceful, but the security officers thought otherwise, firing canisters to disperse the crowd.
The EFCC has responded to the issue, claiming that it was after a ‘suspect’ who had jumped bail. Okorocha had denied the allegations of misappropriation of public funds levelled against him, particularly during his eight-year rule in Owerri.
But Okorocha’s immediate response to the siege was, “I am under hostage I would say. The EFCC is at my house, both the back and the front. I would say, I have enquired if they have an arrest warrant nothing, and I am supposed to be getting ready for screening.”
The embattled senator added, “I don’t know what is happening. Unfortunately, this is happening here.”
He disclosed that his next line of action would be to hold a press conference, adding that the EFCC cannot stop the press from entering his compound.
That was a wish never to be realised for a man on whose head a 17-count charge of fraud running into N2.9bn had been heaved earlier in January, including conspiracy to steal funds with five companies, from public coffers.
*I don’t know what’s happening, says embattled senator
Okorocha added, “I am trying to address a press conference, Of course, the EFCC cannot stop the press from coming into my premises. They are inside my compound, but the press is coming inside my house to interview me, they can’t stop them.
When asked if he would be submitting himself to the anti-graft agency, the presidential aspirant said, “I’ll be here until I know what it is because this is something serious. I want to see an arrest warrant or a court order,” he said in desperation.
When he was about to be arraigned in January, he was accused in a federal case in which he stood alongside other respondents; Anyim Nyerere Chinenye, Naphtali International Limited, Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited, Consolid Projects Consulting Limited, Pramif International Limited, and Legend World Concepts Limited, of fraud, Okorocha had pleaded innocent.
But the charges were filed about the same time the former governor was declaring his intention to run for the office of the president in 2023.
The case was assigned, on January 24, to Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, but attempts to arraign the senator was twice stalled, owing to the absence of the ex-governor who the EFCC accused of evading service of the processes.
At the last adjourned date, March 28, 2022, Justice Ekwo, before adjourning until May 30 warned that it was “the last adjournment I shall grant in this matter.”
Given the circumstances then, the EFCC said it was left with no option but to effect the arrest of Okorocha and bring him to trial.
The accused persons were alleged to have stolen the said amount belonging to Imo State and local government areas in the state in contravention of the Money Laundering Act 2011.
The charges claimed that the stolen funds were diverted between October 2014 and February 2016 from the Imo State Government House’s account and Imo State Joint Local Government Project account.
The embattled Imo State big-time businessman must have been living in a fool’s paradise when he stated during his January ordeal, “(President Muhammadu) Buhari has promised to take up my EFCC case”.
*Teargases protesters, guests, bursts ceiling to effect arrest after six hours of siege
The EFCC operatives surrounded the Abuja residence of Okorocha’s house, before the senator’s arrest was heavily-armed personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.
After laying siege for six hours, the operatives destroyed the ceiling of the palatial house to gain access to the building.
Before yesterday’s arrest, Okorocha had reportedly been said to snub several invitations extended to him by the EFCC over the alleged corruption charge against him.
*EFCC’s reaction
Yesterday, the EFCC, in a statement, tried to justify its action, saying it had to swing into action “because he jumped bail and refused to accept court processes from the commission”.
In the statement signed by the anti-graft commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, the agency alleged that Okorocha had jumped an administrative bail he was granted, “and has also evaded his corruption trial”.
“In the circumstances, the Commission is left with no option than to effect the arrest of Senator Okorocha and bring him to trial,” the EFCC said.
The statement read in part, “Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, today, May 24, 2022, arrived at the Maitama, Abuja home of a former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, to effect his arrest.
The move followed the refusal of the former governor to honour invitations after jumping the administrative bail earlier granted him by the Commission.”
