The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma and his Commissioner for Works, Hon Ralp Nwosu have been accused of looking the other way and displaying a non-challent attitude over allegations of corruption and malfeasances leveled against the permanent secretary of Ministry of Works, Engr Ogbuka.
A group known under the aegis of “Imo Good governance Team” had through a letter dated June 9th, 2020, which was addressed to the Governor of Imo State, His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodinma, called for an immediate probe of the activities of Engr Ogbuka C.C. In the said letter which was made available to the press, the group accused the Permanent Secretary of diverting huge sum of money meant for the construction of some roads and other infrastructures to his personal use. That was even before he was elevated to the office of Permanent Secretary, forcing the group to wonder those attributes that would have informed such promotion, since Engr C.C Egbuka, never merited it having incubated, elicited and approved gleefully the construction of substandard roads in Imo State.
They attributed the bad and obviously intolerable and deteriorated or completely dilapidated road network in Imo to the conspiracy between the former Governor who is now a Senator, Rochas Okorocha and the Permanent Secretary, Engr C.C Egbuka and wondered why such a person should still be in the state civil service without accounting for his deeds as Director of works.
The President of the group Comrade Ugochukwu Nwabuchie, yesterday advised the government of Uzodinma to live upto their assurances to Imo people to purge the state of corrupt civil servants. He insisted that Engr Ogbuka should explain to Imo people how he acquired the expansive mega filling station along Port Harcourt road, Owerri, and others scattered all over the state while still a mere Director of Works in the state Ministry of Works.
Nwabuchie complained that after sending the petition to the Governor, they only got a call from the office of the Head of Service (HOS). When they requested the person who called them to send the Association a letter for them to ascertain their identity, the caller refused and instead dropped the call. Nwabuchie explained that since their petition was submitted to the Governor, they have continued to receive threatening calls, hence their decision to shun the invitation by the office of the Head of Service of Imo State.
According to him, since their petition bothers on corruption, they expect the Governor to suspend the Permanent Secretary and set up a committee to investigate the numerous allegations and possible punish him if found guilty of the allegation, to serve as deterrent to other corrupt public servants or those inclined to be so corrupted.
He also accused the Commissioner for Works of complicity for protecting the Permanent Secretary, adding that with the allegation of acquiring properties amounting to hundreds of millions of naira as a serving civil servant, Ogbuka should have no business to do with remaining in office a day after being exposed.
