Contract Agreements Where Not Signed Under Okorocha – Obi Reveals 

Speaking at the resumed sitting of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Contracts awarded in Imo state between June 2011- May – 2019 at the weekend, the panel discovered that most of the major contracts awarded under the Okorocha administration did not have contract agreements executed by both the government and the contractors while contract sums were fully paid.

The commission also discovered that some of contracts did not have case files despite their values being in billions of naira.

Answering questions from members of the Commission, Obi, who personally signed the contracts as the chairman of the Government House Task Force Projects Committee, expressed surprise that the contractors did not sign the contract agreements and still received payments from his office.

According to him, as the man in -charge of the award of contracts, he signed his own column of the contact agreements and sent same to the office of the secretary of the task force to ensure every contractor signed their own before they were paid mobilisation fees.

Responding to a question on why N650 million was paid for the construction of the headquarters of two new ministries without the contracts being awarded while the building cannot be found anywhere in the state, Rep. Obi said that he was not in a position to know the projects executed because he was not in -charge of project inspection.

He disclosed that the then governor, Okorocha was in -charge of projects inspection and should be held responsible for any substandard projects or ones paid for but not executed.

On why some of the contracts like the internal roads in Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area and a project designated as Sunrise Park were not listed in any files as contracts awarded despite billions of naira paid for them, he also expressed surprise about the development, saying he did not know the locations.

The commission also discovered that in January 2013, a contract was awarded for the construction of Egbeada-Afor Umuaka Road at the cost of N2.4 billion at the recommendation of the committee led by the then secretary to the government of Imo state, but was curiously cancelled and re-awarded to another contractor at the cost of N3.6 billion two weeks later by Obi.

But, responding, the lawmaker said that he was only a civil servant and was bound to carry out instructions given to him by the governor.

He however stated that there were new bills of quantity from another contractor that jerked up the price.