Imo State High Court sitting in Owerri has ordered an interim forfeiture of all properties
illegally acquired by the state’s former governor, Rochas Okorocha while serving as governor between 2011 to 2019.
Justice Fred Njemanze, gave the order on Thursday following an application filed by Louis Alozie, SAN.
Cited as defendants in the suit are Okorocha’s wife, Nkechi, Incorporated Trustees of Rochas Foundation and Okorocha as the first, second and third respondents respectively, against the Attorney-General of the State.
Alozie had applied for interim forfeiture of: Eastern Palm University, Ogboko; Royal Spring Palm Hotels and Apartments; IBC staff quarters illegally acquired for the purpose of Rochas Foundation College, Owerri; Magistrate Quarters, Orlu Road/Cooperative Office/Girls Guide illegally converted to private use housing Market Square, Kilimanjaro Eatery; public building plot B/2 Otamiri South Extension Layout given to the Ministry of Women Affairs for establishing a skills acquisition centre for women illegally acquired for the benefit of Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha’s All-In Stall, Aba Road.
Others are Plot P5 Naze Residential Layout initially part of Primary School Management Board but now annexed to All-In Stall, Aba Road belonging to Mrs Nkechi Okorocha, and all the properties contained from pages 226 to 272 of the Government White Paper on the recommendation of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Land Administration in Imo state from June 2006 to May 2019.
According to the senior lawyer, the application was based on the ground that “these public properties were converted to personal use by the 1st-3rd respondents and their cronies for which the applicants now intend to recover them in line with the White Paper by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry’s report.
Okorocha and some of his supporters were last week arrested in Imo for forcefully unsealing his wife’s hotel, which was recently sealed by the state government.