EFCC arrests Imo State Accountant-General, accuses Governor Okorocha of diverting N1bn for vote buying

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested the Accountant-General of Imo State, Uzoho Casmir, for allegedly helping Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to launder N1.05bn for the governorship and assembly elections on Saturday.

Okorocha, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, is supporting his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance against the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Hope Uzodinma. The act earned Okorocha a suspension from the party last week.

The EFCC report confirming the arrest read in part, “The, EFCC, Enugu Zonal Office, Thursday, March 8, 2019 arrested the Acting Accountant General of Imo State, Mr. Uzoho Casmir, on suspicion of laundering the sum of N1.050bn through a new generation bank for the governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha.  

“Uzoho’s arrest followed intelligence report that the governor intended to use the money for vote buying in favour of a particular candidate in tomorrow’s gubernatorial election. Intelligence further revealed that Mr Casmir withdrew the amount in three tranches between Tuesday and Thursday this week in the following order; N200m on Tuesday, N500m on Wednesday and N350m on Thursday.  

“Meanwhile, the EFCC has blocked the traced accounts, while the arrested Accountant General has been providing useful information to the commission. Mr Casmir was before his appointment, a Director of Finance in Okorocha’s government and was in 2016 fingered in N2bn bailout fund scam, which was then given to the state by the Federal Government for the payment of salary arrears of civil servants.”