The Government of Imo State is groaning under a whopping N199 billion debt left behind by the government of former Governor Rochas Okorocha.
Okorocha was governor of the state from 2011 to 2019.
During his administration, he ran the government without following the fiscal planning rules and processes.
It emerged yesterday that the Debt Management Office (DMO) had written to Hope Uzodimma, the current governor of the state on the debt profile of Imo, and it has been reliably gathered that Okorocha threw the state into heavy debt burden, with a source at the DMO putting the debt incurred by the former governor at N199billion.
The DMO source said with what Okorocha incurred for Imo, the current government will find it difficult to be granted even N10 million loan.
Governor Uzodimma, the DMO source said, was shell shocked that the state is owing such amount with nothing practically to show for the amount reportedly borrowed.
Sources said contrary to how responsible governments borrow, Okorocha’s was quite different as he was not bothered about the implication of where he borrowed, how he borrowed and the negative impact on the people he claimed to have borrowed for.
An indigene of Imo State, Patrick Njoku, said it is now becoming clearer why Okorocha was desperate to foist his son in-law on the state. “Now we know why he wanted his son in-law to become governor after him by all means so that he can cover his racks and continue to mortgage the furture of Imo people.”
Njoku however advised Imo people to forget about politicking for now and support Uzodimma to redress most of what Okorocha and his ilk did wrongly in Imo.