Thousands of youths from Owerri Senatorial Zone of Imo State Wednesday evening staged a peaceful demonstration in the State capital, Owerri, calling for reinstatement of impeached deputy governor of the state, Sir Jude Agbaso.
The former deputy governor was impeached on March 28, 2013 by the Imo State House of Assembly following allegations by the managing director of a Lebanese contracting firm, JPROS International Limited, Mr. Joseph Dina, that Sir Agbaso collected N458 million and a bottle of Red Label Wine which cost N150,000 as gratification for a road contract.
But, after months of investigation by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), the anti-graft agency, in a report dated November 27, 2013, exonerated Sir Agbaso of any wrong doing, stating that the total contract sum of $5.6million was found to have been remitted to the personal account of MD of JPROS Company, Mr. Dina. The report stated that there was no single evidence that the ex-deputy governor benefited from the fund.
As a result of this, the youths barricaded Government House Round-about with placards bearing several inscriptions such as: Reinstate Sir Jude Agbaso now!; Jude Agbaso is innocent, says EFCC; Imo House of Shame, not House of Assembly; etc.
Speaking to journalists, one of the youths, Emeka Nwankwo, said that the former deputy governor was wrongly accused of the bribery scam, accusing the Imo House of Assembly of playing a script written by Governor Rochas Okorocha, who they said never liked Agbaso.
They accused the lawmakers of being hasty in their judgment, saying ‘a panel that was supposed to last for three months, just sat for seven days and impeached an innocent man’.
They therefore demanded the immediate reinstatement of Sir Agbaso as the deputy governor of Imo state because he and Governor Okorocha were elected together on the same platform.
They accused Okorocha of sacrificing Agbaso because the governor never wanted to keep to the one-tenure pact he had with the Owerri senatorial zone.
The youths therefore vowed to ensure the governor was voted out in 2015, saying ‘Okorocha has lost the trust and confidence of the people of Imo State’.
While commending the EFCC for vindicating Agbaso, the youths further demanded that the N1.3billion contract sum should be recovered from both JPROS and Governor Okorocha.
