If Chief Ikedi Ohakim, the petit governor of Imo state, foresaw the present bouts of controversies and condemnations trailing his defection from the People’s Progressives Alliance (PPA) to People’s Democratic Party (PDP), he might have thought twice. (Photo shows controversial Governor Ohakim)Governor Ohakim who was elected governor of Imo state on the platform of PPA in April of 2007, to the chagrin of many, ditched the party on Saturday July 25 for the PDP, the party in power at the centre. To underscore the relevance attached to Ohakim’s conversion by PDP, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and, indeed, top command of the party, as well as top government functionaries, literally shut down the Abuja seat of power and streamed down to Owerri, Imo state capital, to celebrate the event.
Although Ohakim’s decamp had come and gone, the ripples it generated have hardly settled, as he continues to come under vitriolic attacks by those who see his action as a political disaster.
The former Imo state Commerce Commissioner, no doubt, received the first rounds of knocks from the Imo Democratic Congress (IDC), an Owerri-based pressure group. As a matter of fact, IDC’s lampoon of Ohakim over his dumping of PPA predated the actual date of the visit of President Yar’Adua and his subsequent decamp to PDP.
“Huge funds belonging to the impoverished people of Imo state are being expended on bogus preparations for the visit”, the group noted in a statement signed by Chief Austin Onwumere (President) and Maximus Uba (Secretary).
Scoring Governor Ohakim zero in his administration of Imo state so far, the organization observed that his volte face in dumping the PPA that gave him a position the PDP denied him, was borne out of despair and loss of political relevance in the scheme of things, both in the party (PPA) and in Imo state.
Reasons abound that even if he did not decamp, Ohakim’s rosy days in PPA were over, especially, with his antagonizing Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party. Ohakim reportedly sent a 16 page petition to the police against Kalu, accusing him of, among other things, plotting to kill him (Ohakim). And Orji Kalu, it would be recalled, provided Ohakim with the platform on which he emerged the governor of Imo state after he had been denied same by the PDP.
Not a few believe that Ohakim’s petition against Kalu was a smokescreen for him to eventually dump PPA for PDP.
In the opinion of Ohakim’s antagonists, Kalu was not his first victim, as he is quoted to have similarly ditched the likes of Senator Araramue (who influenced his appointment as a commissioner in 1991); Prof. Maurice Iwu (who unilaterally wrote results in his favour in 2007), and Hope Uzodinma among others.
Ohakim was reportedly forced by an oath he took before being allowed into the Government House in Owerri to dump the PPA for PDP.
The magazine learnt that Chief Chris Uba, the former Anambra State political heavy weight and the same man who made former Anambra state governor Chris Ngige swear by the Okija shrine, also administered the same dreaded Alusi Okija on Ohakim. And this Okija administration and initiation was said to be on behalf of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who insisted on a guarantee that Ohakim would keep his promise to defect back to the PDP if allowed to emerge governor of Imo state in 2007?
Obasanjo himself practically confirmed this much when he said that Governor Ohakim was only fulfilling a promise he made to defect back to PDP after his emergence. Ohakim’s defection, in Obasanjo's own words, was ‘a pre-arranged agreement he entered with the PDP before the election’.
Despite the arguments in his favor by his apologists to the effect that the wrath Okija deity would descend on him and members of his family should he renege on the sworn agreement, many, including his former party (PPA) think that Ohakim, by the defection, has exhibited cowardice.
In particular, PPA, in a statement, said Governor Ohakim’s defection was a betrayal of trust and a cowardly approach to politics, regretting that it was, therefore, regrettable that he had to buckle under PDP pressure to display a palpable lack of courage and conviction.
“Rather than lead, Ikedi Ohakim has chosen to capitulate. Rather than inspire the growing legion of party members to stir the PPA to greater heights in the great state of Imo, he has decided to cut and run", PPA stated.
There is no gain-saying the fact that rather than accolades, what Governor Ohakim and his co-travelers in party defection, governors of Bauchi and Zamfara states, have been receiving from Nigerians, both at home and in the diaspora, are vicious attacks.
Midget Governor Ohakim received one of the knocks from the international arena. In the words of a news website, www.icheoku.com, “By Governor Ikedi Ohakim going back to PDP, a political party that scornfully tossed him out of their moving train to be crushed thereunder in 2007, shows that the man has no core and lacks a sense of self and decency. How dare he lick back his spittle? Does this man still have what it takes to be called governor of a state which the late Dee Sam Onunaka Mbakwe once governed?”
Icheoku, therefore, enjoined the Imo State House of Assembly to immediately commence impeachment proceedings against the defector-Governor Ohakim, with a view to protecting the integrity of the people of the state.
The news website added: “What PDP did by poaching Governor Ikedi Ohakim is pure greed as they concluded they must also consume a state out of the two held by an opposition political party. It does not bode well for democracy. Governor Ikedi Ohakim's defection is very unfortunate, it impacts adversely the sagacity of multiple political parties needed in a democracy, thereby stifling differing view-points and should be condemned by all true democrats, who wish Nigeria's democracy well”.
And to Imo Democratic Congress, Ohakim’s non-performance and corrupt administration of the state was part of the reason he chose jump ship of the party that gave him succor in time of utmost need. The Congress alleged that one of the deficiencies of Ohakim is that he has been incapable of fulfilling any of his electioneering promises.
Citing the case of the new Government House at Nekede (near Owerri) and the new secretariat blocks which President Yar’Adua, during his first visit to the state, laid their foundation stones, the organization noted that two years after, ‘not even a single block has been erected at the sites’. The same fate is said to have befallen the Oguta Wonder Lake Resort for which Ohakim’s government obtained a whooping loan of N40 billion.
“Oguta Wonder Lake project is a huge fraud and drain pipe for siphoning out the resources of Imo state”, the Imo Democratic Congress asserted.
In the statement entitled: ‘Imo: Facts Yar’Adua Must Know’, the Congress, also, pointed out that the Okigwe Water Scheme Project which the governor lured President Yar’Adua into commissioning during his visit to the state two years back turned out a ruse. The Water Scheme Project, executed by the government of late Chief Sam, was later taken over by the federal government.
The group stated: “Today, almost two years after the President commissioned the same project, there is no water anywhere in Okigwe. The Honorable Member representing Okigwe in Imo State House of Assembly, who raised his voice against this fraud, was threatened with a recall. He was intimidated by Governor Ohakim’s henchmen and he capitulated”.
Part of the contention of the organization was that Governor Ohakim has squandered over N60 billion on road constructions across Owerri metropolis alone! Ohakim’s government reportedly claimed that it dualized all the roads leading to the state capital, but the Congress countered this, maintaining that the roads were federal roads which were rather constructed by previous administrations. The group claimed that what Governor Ohakim had simply done was to put concrete dividers in the middle of the roads that have already been built, meaning that he had done road division and not dualisation. Most of the roads in Owerri capital city, IDC remarked, are no longer passable. And the roads were listed to include Imo Transport Company (ITC), Prefab Estate, Ikenegbu Extension, Mbaise Road and New Owerri.
Another project of Ohakim that allegedly constitutes a drain pipe in the treasury of the state is the Clean and Green Programme. “The programme which has gulped over N20 billion is concentrated on Okigwe road round-about, Assumpta Cathedral round-about, Fire Service round-about and Bank road by Douglas road round-about. Apart from the bus-shelter and side-walk ways built by the Governor, nothing more has been achieved under this programme”, the Congress maintained.
Insisting that Ohakim has been dishing out false pictures of the state to President Yar’Adua and the Nigerian public, the group regretted that huge investments on publicity by his government have prevented the public from appreciating the level of degeneration and economic retardation the state has continued to suffer since 2007.
Critics of Ohakim’s government say his has been a government of newspapers and bill-boards. This is to the extent that, apart from his two years of achievements in office still running in several newspapers and magazines, including in Hausa and Yoruba tabloids, bill boards of several sizes are mounted in far away places like Minna, Abeokuta, kuduna and Lagos. The electronic media are, also, not left out of Ohakim’s publicity blitz, as radio stations in far-away Sokoto and Ogun states are said to be singing his praises daily, not only as a performing Governor, but one who has more than the needed credentials to take over from an ailing President Musa Yar’adua at the fullness of time.
Ohakim is, also, accused of absenteeism in the running of Imo state. For instance, he has reportedly spent only 150 days in the state as against over 500 days he spent gallivanting in Lagos, London, and Abuja. It was as a result of this continual absence from office that a Lagos-based non-government organization, “Good Governance Initiative”, scored him zero in its recently conducted on-spot assessment of activities of governments in the southeast states. According to the report, there were no new roads constructed or Rehabilitated in the state by Ohakim’s government except badly built ones at Anara/Amaraku axis, the home town of the governor and his wife. The reports added that hospitals in the state which have, under Ohakim, remained consulting clinics and health centers have, for long, been deserted following poor personnel and funding.
Part of the report of the Good Governance Initiative is massive fraud in Imo state Government House, transfer of funds without due process, abuse of government’s directives as it concerns finance, non release of PVC for audit inspection, non return of Personnel cash advances as well as uncertified capital payments.
The report, also, indicted Ohakim’s government on the disappearance of excess crude money running into billions of naira, massive unauthorized withdrawal from local government allocation totaling over N60 billion, outright stealing of government property, disappearance of vehicles donated by international organizations, as well as disappearance of sensitive documents and files, especially, from the state’s Ministry of Finance and Local Government.
The Imo Democratic Congress, also, conducted its own assessment wherein it uncovered fraudulent practices such as over-invoicing running into billions of naira, lack of audit inspection of government establishments, huge payments for contract jobs not executed, double debiting, lack of receipts to cover payments, contract inflation, particularly, on road contracts, poor budget implementation. According to the group, the innumerable potholes on the roads across the state, epileptic power supply, lack of potable water, especially, in Owerri and Okigwe are more than enough to turn the masses of the state against the Ohakim-led administration.
In its conclusion, the Imo group stated that the foregoing deficiencies are made worsen by selfishness and total absence of patriotism on the part of both Governor Ohakim, his brother who is the state’s Chief of Staff, as well as his aides among others.
IDC expresses pessimism over Ohakim’s future performance, posing: “If Ohakim cannot give account of two years with surplus money coming from here and there, now with the bells already tolling for another election, where will the magic then come from? Also, how can one expect performance from Ohakim now that the economy is battered in terms of revenue whereas precious time was wasted on frivolous matters? What happened to the N40 billion bond with UBA Plc? And why is Imo state servicing primary loans to the tune of over 1 billion every month since 2007/”
Not a few groups in the state, as it were, submit that Imo state, under the administration of Ohakim, is ‘in chains’ courtesy of rulers without vision.
“Who will save Imo State from the Ohakims who have since 2007 commandeered our common wealth and left us in chains? When will sanity be restored in the Land of Hope and who will cut short this long and delayed take off of Imo to the path of sustainable growth and development? Who, indeed, will remove the chains inflicted on Imo by the Ohakims and their co travelers?” the groups continue to ask.
It has to be pointed out that Governor Ohakim is never new to roiling scandals in his administration of the state. The magazine recalls that one of the governor’s aides, sometime back, got enmeshed in grain scandal running into over N20 million to the state police command. The aide, with alleged connivance of the governor, reportedly sold the several tones of grain, allocated to the state from the Strategic Grains Reserve, sold at source. It was gathered that that the grains were sold to a farmer from Oyo state by Teddy Adams, the governor’s Special Assistance.
At the time the lid was blown open on the deal, the farmer had reportedly paid N3 million cash, and had issued Adams a cheque to cover the rest of the money. But Adams was, unfortunately, nabbed when he went to collect the money, and he was, subsequently, taken in by the police for further investigation. Feigning ignorance of the deal, Governor was said to have directed the police to thoroughly investigate the alleged scam, with a view to unraveling the truth.
Ironically, till date, nothing has come out of the police inquiry on the scam, as Ohakim reportedly hushed up the investigation.
Apart from the alleged N40 billion bond and massive diversion of local government funds, there had been scandals revolving round what individuals and groups have termed the “Spate of Financial Recklessness in the State”. Ohakim’s government has, also, been on the dot over alleged squandering of over N4 billion on travels and tours, in addition to over N300 million on Nigerian Musical Awards which he held in the state shortly after assuming office. All these reckless spending had, of course, been amidst the fact that several communities in the state neither enjoy pipe borne water, electricity, healthcare facilities nor motorable roads.
There is no gainsaying the fact that Governor Ohakim’s alleged excesses in the running of Imo state have attracted the attention of relevant anti-corruption agencies in the country, including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau respectively. His defection to PDP notwithstanding, this magazine gathered that the crime agencies have continued to focus their searchlights towards Governor Ohakim, and will not hesitate to bring him face to face with the law at the appropriate time.
Meanwhile, countless scandals continue to run against Ohakim’s government like the Imo River. Will the Land of Hope Governor successfully wriggle out of the land mines on his entire path in the state? Or will he be submerged in the impending political Armagedon in Imo state in the forthcoming guber election? Will Ohakim’s recourse to the bosom of the Almighty PDP save him from the overwhelming rainbow coalition against his re-run? The answer to these questions and more, certainly, lie in the womb of time.
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