N2bn contract scam hits Okorocha’s rescue govt

No, theres no contract scam in Imo -Govt
…As health workers agitate 9-month salary arrears

By KELECHI MGBOJI

The rescue mission agenda of Governor Rochas Okorocha may have suffered major setback following N2billion contract scam rocking the state Joint Task Force on Roads Construction, giving virulent opposition a leeway to wrest power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government.

At the centre of the scandal which has cast a slur on the integrity of the administration is the Chairman of the Joint Task Force, Stan Dara, who has amassed stupendous wealth since after he was entrusted with the responsibility by the state government, and another member of the taskforce, Ikechukwu Amuka.

Both men are members of the State House of Assembly. While Dara who is serving for second term represents Orsu State Constituency, Amuka, a fresher in the state house, represents Ideato South State Constituency.  

This contract scam is coming on the heels of agitation by the state health workers’ protest against 9 months of unpaid salary arrears, as well as unilateral attempt to sell the State Specialist Hospital to some private operators.

Miffed by sudden realization that government sold the former Imo State General Hospital, Owerri, to some strange private operators who came and commenced recruitment across board, medical doctors, nurses and other workers in the state owned institution staged seven days protests in the last week of December after which the government paid them three months arrears and rescinded its decision to sell the hospital without following due process.

Dara, the Chairman of the Joint Task Force on Roads Construction, was discovered to have inflated the cost of purchase of asphalt for the construction of 15 kilometer road in each of the 27 local governments. 

Our investigation revealed that the cost of asphalt for one kilometer of road was inflated to N21million as against N17million per kilometer, leaving the Joint Task Force chairman richer with N60million for each of the 15 kilometer road constructed in each of the 27 local governments.

He was said to have pocketed about N2 billion, resulting significant drain in the state government’s evaluation for the state-wide road projects intended to open up the rural areas and link them up with Owerri, the state capital.

The state-wide roads construction project has since been stalled with many of the roads abandoned while others are now worse than when the construction work commenced, leaving the administration at a low-point on the rescue mission.

Reliable source detailed how Dara bought quarry machines, caterpillars, and an asphalt paver which just arrived Lagos from Germany, waiting to be delivered in Owerri, all in readiness for floating his private construction firm.

He has since completed twin two storey buildings in Irete, a suburb of Owerri, a world class warehouse located at Industrial Layout, Owerri, and several other landed property scattered in Owerri, Orlu and other parts of the state.

The Owelle Rochas Okorocha administration has been hotly criticized by not only the opposition, but also members of his political party who bitterly complain that the governor has removed the ladder through which he had climbed to power.   

The legislators at the centre of the scandal were said to have since gone to appease governor Okorocha who was expected to hand them over to the anti-graft agencies for investigation and possible prosecution, a development that gave the administration away as doubtful custodian of justice and equity considering the circumstances surrounding the impeachment of the governor’s former deputy, Jude Agbaso.

Agbaso was vilified and removed from office by the state House of Assembly under the watch of his boss, governor Okorocha, for alleged inflation of contract cost by about N400million over which Agbaso was eventually exonerated recently but could not reclaim his office having been replaced by Prince Madumere.
When contacted for comments, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okorocha, Sam Onwuemedo, faulted the contract scam story describing it as roadside gossip manufactured from a photograph taken somewhere in the state and which some journalists labeled as Stan Dara begging Okorocha over alleged contract scam.

The governor’s spokesman who insisted that there was no contract scam anywhere in the state explained that a certain photograph taken at the house of former Nwangele representative at the state house of assembly, Hon Nwoha, which was published and labeled by some journalists in the state.

Contending the ownership of the properties indicated in this story, Onwuemedo said that there was no evidence linking the legislator with those properties, adding that even if Dara is the owner of the said properties, nothing suggests that he acquired them with proceeds of any contract scam.

On the issue of the State Specialist Hospital, he explained that the government is repositioning the hospital to make it more efficient but added that there were issues that occasioned nonpayment of the workers' salary.

He argued that if government could pay the salary of thousands of other civil servants in the state there was no reason to think that the state has no resources to pay up the salaries of the workers of the hospital, adding that similar situation existed in some other state owned institutions which government has repositioned and are now functioning efficiently, paying workers' salaries now as and when due.

According to him, the hospital was in disarray before the advent of the Okorocha administration, pointing out that there was no proper management, no accountability and workers only go to collect salaries without doing the work for which they were being paid.

“So government is on a mission to get things done properly and make the hospital function properly. Government is taking measures of to reposition the hospital for efficient functioning,” said the Onwuemedo.

He said that government had no intention to privatise the hospital but admitted that government plans to concession it for efficiency and proper administration, adding that such was the remedy applied to Imo Concorde Hotel and the Adapalm Nigeria Limited which he said are now functioning efficiently.    

He exonerated the governor from any wrong doing against Agbaso, insisting that Okorocha had no hand in his former deputy’s travails.

However, Stan Dara could not react to questions sent to him by text message a week earlier after calls to his mobile phone consistently failed to go through.