The Imo State Task Force on the Recovery of Looted Government Properties on Friday stormed an expansive warehouse of Mrs Uloma Nwosu, daughter of the immediate past governor of the state and the Senator representing the Imo West Senatorial District, Rochas Okorocha.
The task force team, led by its Chairman, Chief Jasper Ndubuaku, around noon moved into the facility located along the Owerri-Aba Road and removed some items from the warehouse.
Among properties taken away by the task force were chairs, tables, air conditioners, beds and bedding.
Expectedly, the event attracted a large crowd of passersby, who rushed to the scene to watch the drama.
Ndubuaku, a two-time member of the state House of Assembly for Isiala Mbano State Constituency, told journalists that the action of his team followed a tip-off by some indigenes of the state.
“We acted on the information we received from some people that some of the missing government items from the Imo State International Convention Centre and the Imo State Trade and Investment Centre were criminally deposited here.
“We alerted the police and the Commissioner of Police (Rabiu Ladodo) decided to accompany us to this place to recover the items. We have recovered them and we will seal the warehouse now,” he said.
However, Nwosu, who briefly spoke to journalists, said the properties seized by the task force were neither looted nor stolen.
Meanwhile, there was panic on Friday when officials of the Imo State Task Force on the Recovery of Looted Government Properties clashed with workers at one of the properties owned by Okorocha’s wife, Nneoma.
Ndubuaku said assets worth N2bn belonging to the state government were discovered on Nneoma’s premises.
Speaking to the journalists, Ndubuaku said the properties belonged to the state government and stated that the task force’s action was backed by a court order to search and recover them.
Reacting to the incident, Okorocha said his successor, Mr Emeka Ihedioha, was on a vendetta against him and wondered why the state task force invaded his wife’s property already sealed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A statement issued on Friday by Okorocha’s media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, read, “This is to inform all men and women of goodwill that barely two days after the agents of the EFCC had marked the ALL-IN SHOP, owned by the wife of the former governor, Dr Nneoma Okorocha, located at Naze near Owerri, for investigation, following the flood of petitions written to the commission by the Peoples Democratic Party government in the state, the leader and members of the government’s committee on the recovery of government properties invaded the shop on Friday and looted the goods there, including the ones inside the containers parked on the premises of the shop.”
