The Chairman, Imo State Committee on Recovery of Moveable Assets, Chief Jasper Ndubuaku, disclosed that the panel has recovered about 60 vehicles and other items, since its inauguration.
The Chief who is a former House of Assembly member for Isiala Mbano revealed this yesterday in an Igbo programme of a private radio station – Darling FM. He regretted that the attempt of the committee to recover one aircraft out of four, which former Governor Rochas Okorocha said the state acquired under his watch for the Imo Air project, in partnership with Dana Air, was yet to be realised.Ndubuaku said the panel was working hard to put its papers in order before approaching Dana Air to ask for the aircraft.
He accused the police in the state of not cooperating with the committee to recover the items, regretting that the police seized some of the items they recovered as exhibits.
“What the police are doing to us is not good. The court has ordered police to give us escort for the recovery, but they are not complying. Police have seized six to seven vehicles recovered, saying that they are exhibits. What the police are doing is, when the committee recovers, they take and lock. There is nothing that the state government does not own that we have taken away.
Some of the items are marked ‘Imo State Government’. The Commissioner of Police saw them, (but) he helped in confiscating them,” he said.The panel alleged that when they went to recover some items at ‘All In’ shops last weekend, the security agents of Okorocha’s daughter came in-between.According to Ndubuaku, the panel had reported the matter to the Department of State Services (DSS).
But the CP in the state, Rabiu Ladodo has debunked the allegation that his men were disrupting the committee’s work, noting that his legal team faulted the search warrant, which the committee was yet to remedy on his advice.
Ladodo said the comment could only be the truth when they were ready to cooperate for peace, noting that he dispersed them when there was pandemonium, to prevent violence. “I asked them to bring the court order. My lawyer and I pointed out mistakes. They accepted. We asked them to go and correct it. I did not see them. I did not give them police escort because they did not bring the corrected one.“I challenge them to come with the truth and a face-to-face interview in my presence, so I can put them through and we know the truth.”
