A non-governmental organization, Kingdom Human Right Foundation International and Rights for All International had gone to court to ask the EFCC to among others, probe the government of Okorocha in Imo State.
Following this application, an Abuja federal High Court granted the permission for the prosecution of a case by Justice Ahmed Mohammad in a ruling on March 3, 2020. The case was adjourned till March 17 for hearing.
Named as defendants in the case are in EFCC, Okorocha, Zigreat International Company Limited, Eze Stanley Enwereku and Duru Cyracus Onyeobi.
The court approval may see EFCC go after Okorocha again after initial search to investigate him.
The former governor had been in EFCC watch out but got excused from investigation because of impunity. Even before he left office as governor, Okorocha had gone to court to halt EFCC, and police investigation.
The plaintiffs, in the case marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2020, filed by their lawyer, K. M. Okere, sought to force EFCC to investigate Okorocha and others over sundry allegations of financial impropriety while in office.
They claimed to have petitioned the EFCC in 2019, but reported that the agency failed to take action on the petition.
The plaintiffs said that, by their suit for judicial review, they want the court to order the EFCC to “investigate the allegation of corruption, money laundering, inflated contract, unlawful award of contract without due process and breach of Procurement Act, criminal over-inflation of contracts fully paid for with public funds against the 2nd to the 5th defendants in this suit, as contained in the plaintiffs’ petition dated 22nd August 2019.”
