U-Report: Demonstration In Imo State Soon Over Fraud In Imo House Speaker’s Office

Speaker Ben Uwajimogu

Report By Amaka Didanda

A group Youths Against Human Rights Violations and Corrupt Practices [YAHVCP] has decried the whooping tax- payers money  allegedly looted by the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly  Chief Benjamin Uwajumogu  and has revealed its  plans to flag off a peaceful demonstration in Owerri the capital  city of Imo State  on 17th of March 2014 tagged  ‘’ Benjamin Uwajumogu  Must  Go’’  to press home  demands for   a  panel to be constituted to  investigate the corruption allegations leveled against the Speaker . The group also pointed out that  it has commenced the  printing of  thousands of  flyers that will be distributed  in Owerri  urging the people of   Imo State  to  come out on that day to make their  representatives in the House of Assembly  aware of  concerns regarding fraud in the House.

The Group  made this known in a  statement  issued in Owerri   by its National Coordinator, Mr Kenneth Uwadi and  made available to new reporters.  According to YAHVCP,  Chief Uwajumogu  has several explanations to offer  the people of Imo State over the petition forwarded to the EFCC by his former media aide Ikenna Samulson Iwuoha.  The  petition disclosed how fraudulent contracts for road  projects worth billions of naira  were awarded  by the Speaker without due process and how  the Speaker  used the proceeds of the crime to acquire several properties in Nigeria and abroad whereas the same state is in dire need of infrastructures and is  facing serious youths  unemployment issues.

YAHVCP fingered out properties acquired by the Speaker from his loot such as :

•  N500 million naira Asphalt plant along Onitsha road Owerri
• 15 mansions along Chief Ben  Uwajumogu Street, Federal Housing Estate Umuguma Owerri – West LGA
• JASMINE Hotels and Suites  behind Imo Concorde Hotel valued  at  over N70 million
• Over 200 plots of  land  located in Owerri West LGA
• N400million naira Mansion at Ihitte /Uboma
• 2 other mansions  at  Ihitte/Uboma
• Mansions in Aba and Umuahia
• N760 million naira Crush  Rock Industry in Ebonyi State
• N500 million naira private hotel  in Abuja
• N750 million naira private hotel in Lagos.
• Converting  the Imo State Liaison Office Abuja into  his personal property
• Properties acquired abroad  using his sister as front.

The group also  distanced itself from the insinuations that  a political chieftain from Okigwe zone is its sponsor  and called on those parading the rumour to stop chasing shadows adding  that the call for the Speakers  probe is based on the fact that  the group   shares  the anguish and anger of  Imolites  against this kind of capitalist looting.

“We cannot fold our hands and see the youths in Imo State unemployed  after graduation from Universities  just because some  public office holders in the State choose to make them perpetually poor by looting the State dry. They  should all bury their  heads  in shame if  they  think  that by cursing  and insulting   us  they  will get us  to stop talking. Chief Uwajumogu can’t  explain to Imolites that he did not award road contracts to himself  for we have documents to prove that he did  so he  desperately cast  aspersions on us .  He can’t  give a straightforward explanation for the source of his wealth so  he had to call us  paupers,  never do wells and  nonentities ‘’  Uwadi said

“By calling us poor people  and never do well’s , the Speaker  has revealed to Imo people  that he  has  nothing but contempt for anybody who works for a living. The harder you work for a living, the more contemptible you seem to him. To him any one  who therefore don’t have his  ill gotten  riches is  pathetic. To him anybody who acquires wealth through shady means, or who is a wizard in the art of stealing and lying, is to be celebrated as heroic, virtuous, and worthy of praise’’ Uwadi concluded