BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI—Weeks after Governor Rochas Okorocha ordered the arrest and prosecution of no fewer than 17 contractors for allegedly collecting huge sums of money and failing to deliver on the projects, none of them has been arraigned in court.

Okorocha had ordered their arrest while touring the 27 local council areas of the state to personally verify the extent of work done on rural roads.
Already, some concerned citizens have started reacting angrily to what they called  continuing waste of government fund on phantom projects by the Okorocha’s administration.

Former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prince Ken Njemanze, SAN, opined that the administration was yet to tell Imo people the whole truth about the failed contracts.

He said:  “We are yet to be told the whole truth about the failed contracts. The governor would not have any need to run after any contractor if he had extracted performance bond from the contractors. It is even doubtful if government ever entered into contractual agreement with the contractors and it would be interesting to know who ordered payments for jobs not done.”

Okorocha’s former media aide, and President, South East Progressives Assembly, SEPA, Mr. Ebere Uzoukwa, queried “Why did he subject contractors to execute government projects with borrowed funds only to dump and deny them at the point of payment?

Another civil servant, who craved anonymity, reasoned that some top government functionaries obviously played prominent roles in the alleged fleecing of Imo people’s money.