The former governor, who formally declared intention to contest the 2023 presidential election in Abuja on Monday, was alleged to have conspired with another politician, also a member of All Progressives Congress (APC) to steal N2.9billion belonging to Imo State Government.
According to Premium Times, other defendants in the case are Anyim Nyerere Chinenye, Naphtali International Limited, Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited, Consolid Projects Consulting Limited, Pramif International Limited, and Legend World Concepts Limited.
Nyerere, according to search by PremiumTimes, was the APC governorship candidate in the 2015 Abia State election and currently serves as a commissioner at the National Pension Commission.
He features in all the 17 charges and is accused of conspiring with Mr Okorocha to steal and launder N2.9 billion belonging to Imo State and local government areas in the state in contravention of the Money Laundering Act 2011.
As CAC searches by PREMIUM TIMES showed, Nyerere owns or controls three of the charged companies, namely Consolid, Pramif, and Legend World, all registered in Abuja.
According to the EFCC charges obtained by PremiumTimes, the stolen funds were diverted between October 2014 and February 2016 from the Imo State Government House account and Imo State Joint Local Government Project account.
Timeline of the alleged diversions published by Premium Times:
1. February 11, 2014: N67,500,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited
2. August 28, 2014: N486,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited
3. October 14, 2014: N900,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Naphtali International Limited
4. August 4, 2015: N279,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Naphtali International Limited
5. February 10, 2016: N243,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Consolid Projects Consulting Limited
6. . February 10, 2016: N200,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Consolid Projects Consulting Limited
7. February 10, 2016: N243,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Pramif International Limited
8. February 11, 2016: N243,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Perfect Finish Multi Projects Limited
9. February 12, 2016: 243,000,000 – conspiracy between Mr Okorocha, Mr Nyerere, and Legend World Concepts Limited.
Premium Times reports that Nyerere remains a director of Consolid, Pramif, and Legend World even as he holds a public office, potentially breaching Nigeria’s code of conduct laws.
EFCC recovered N7.9bn from the former governor in 2020
The EFCC had in 2020 told Okorocha, who is currently Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District at the National Assembly “to get ready for his day in court.”
The Zonal Head, Usman Imam, who made the statement at the commission’s zonal office in Port Harcourt, Rivers state in June 2020, revealed that a whopping N7.9bn belonging to Imo State was seized from the former governor during investigations by the commission.
Imam, who was the leader of the team probing the former governor, said the commission returned over N5.7bn to various administrations in Imo to pay salaries and pensions of workers.
Imam said: “I started the Imo state case in Enugu and upon my deployment to this zone, the investigations of corruption allegations against the former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, was transfered from the Enugu zone to Port Harcourt for further investigations.
“Within the period, the commission succeeded in freezing about N7.9bn in different accounts. All the monies that were released to Imo State government were from the N7.9bn recovered from Okorocha. The monies were released in batches.
“N2.7bn was released in March for salaries. In the PDP government of Emeka Ihedioha, excess of N2.5bn upon series of writings and our insistence of monitoring it, was released to pay salaries and pensions because they were monies recovered from the state so it has to go back to the state.
“Then the government of Emeka left and this government came, we had a remnant of the money in excess of N2bn. We were able to release N514milion just last month because excess of about N1.8bn is encumbered with a court process. Contractors went to court and targeted the funds. The process is lingering. They still have excess of N1.8bn that is not released.”
According to Imam, apart from the money recovered from Okorocha, his assets identified in Imo and Abuja were seized by the EFCC.
He said the anti-graft agency filed a court process for interim forfeiture of the assets confiscated from the former governor.
“The investigation has got to an advanced stage and we are expecting that on conclusion, we are going to arraign the former governor”, Imam had said.