Former governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, has said the state owes him N8bn.
Okorocha, had on Monday, formally declared his interest to run for the office of president in 2023. A few hours later the EFCC filed a 17-count corruption charge against him.
Speaking on the corruption allegations, the lawmaker, in an interview on Channels Television on Monday, said he became poorer when he assumed office as Imo state governor and the allegations against him are “political propaganda” designed to tarnish his image.
The governor said: “Those who say I was broke are liars, that is a fabricated fallacy. If you talked about Nigerians blessed by God, I raised my hands to say I’m one of them,”
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“Sometimes, it makes me want to sound boisterous, that is not good for me, I don’t like doing that but recently I begin to talk and clarify issues.
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“One, I want to say to you that I was Rochas before I became governor, in fact governor made me poorer.
“If you could go to the code of conduct bureau before I became governor, my real estate alone in Abuja here I’m sure you can find one, two, three and four people who can count on it.
“Let me say something that might shock you, I had Rochas Foundation schools, so many of them. At that time before I became governor, over 18,000 ( his schools)
“I know that to feed these children and educate them it does not cost anything less than N500 a day. Calculate that and know whether there is any day I wake up that N10 million, N15 million does not go out of my pocket.
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“How much is Imo state government money? Imo state is really owing me because I never collected my security votes. I am supposed to collect from Imo state now N8 billion if I have to make claims for security votes I did not collect.
“I fed myself throughout in the government house when I was there, I used my personal cars for me to introduce free education in Imo state.”
