Abia governor, Alex Otti, says his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu, for allegedly making desperate efforts to avoid a probe by procuring a court order to stop the Judiciary Panel on the Recovery of Government Properties and Funds belonging to the state from carrying out its assignment.
According to Otti, Ikpeazu, rattled by the establishment of the panel, has made attempts to get a court order in Abuja to stop the panel.
“Unfortunately for Ikpeazu, every effort to surreptitiously obtain an order of the court against the panel has failed”, Otti said.
Otti in a statement by his chief press secretary, Kazie Uko, said: ”Twice, the former governor had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for ex parte order to restrain the judicial panel, from doing its work, but on the two occasions he was rebuffed by the courts.”
”The two attempts were rejected because he failed to put the state government on notice as directed by the courts.
“A source conversant with details of the two futile moves by Ikpeazu puts it in proper perspective:
“In that suit, Dr. Ikpeazu sought (by way of an Ex-Parte application) to secure an Ex-Parte order to restrain a Judicial Panel of Enquiry set up by the Government of Abia State to recover government properties and funds. His Lordship Hon. Justice Omotosho J. refused the Ex-Parte application, insisting that the respondents be put on notice.”
The statement further stated that Ikpeazu’s attempts to stop the panel without notifying the Abia State Government as directed by the court is a desperate attempt to use the judiciary as shield for the alleged criminal activities of his administration.
Otti, who vowed to recover every dime stolen from the state, said that his predecessor had not given up on his desperation to avoid probe but
Politics Nigeria recalls that Otti had, during his inaugural speech, asked everyone who looted the state treasury to return every government property or fund in their custody, as he would not allow them to go unpunished.
