Panel of inquiry on looted Abia property, funds submits final report

Panel of inquiry on Abia’s looted property, funds submit report to Otti

By Steve Oko

Abia State’s Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the Recovery of looted Government’s properties, funds, and related matters, has submitted its final report to Governor Alex Otti.

Gov. Otti, had shortly after assuming office, set up the panel to recover looted Government’s properties and funds, after asking those in possession of such items to willingly return them.

Handing over the report, Chairman of the panel, Hon. Justice Florence Duroha-Igwe (retd.), said members of the panel discharged their duty without bias but gave everyone opportunity for defense.

He explained that, out of the 350 petitions and memoranda received, the panel was able to hear, conclude and submit its report on 278.

“You did not wish that any Abian should be sent home without being heard” Justice Duruoha-Igwe explained.

Justice Duruoha-Igwe informed the Governor that, the report was in two volumes; an addendum to the main report and an addendum to the proceedings and thanked the Governor for the opportunity to serve the State.

He thanked the Governor for giving them the opportunity to serve on the panel.

Responding, Governor Otti emphasised that, setting up of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry was not for any form of vendetta or witch-hunting.

“Setting up this judicial panel of Inquiry had nothing to do with vendetta, nor did it have anything to do with scapegoatism.

“We just needed to know what happened. Like we had said, and it was a long time ago, a proper handover was not done. So, a lot of times, we were just groping, trying to get information. But that’s by the way now. We’ve trudged on and we’ve done two years.

“But then, a lot of people had a lot of concerns, which we felt that in a democracy, they needed to be heard.
And those concerns needed to be investigated,”

Governor Otti assured that the Government would take the report seriously, disclosing that, already, a committee on the white production has been constituted and the report would be given to them.

“So, one thing that I can confirm to you is that, we are going to take this report very seriously. Like the Honourable Attorney General has said, these two volumes will be immediately dispatched to the Committee on the Production of the White Paper, which will be an instrument.

“So, the Committee (White Paper Production), I’m aware, has been doing a lot of work on the already submitted volumes.

“And these will also be sent to them so that they can flesh out the issues that we needed to deal with,” Gov. Otti stated.

The Governor thanked the Chairman and members of the panel for the hard work that they did in the past two years and a few months, saying that the Government did not anticipate that the panel would take much time.

“We also did not expect the barrages of petitions and memoranda. So, like you rightly pointed out when you submitted the first set of reports, you had indicated that you had over 70 memoranda and petitions that you were not able to look into.

“We felt it was not going to be fair to ignore people who have sat down to put their thoughts together on what they knew about the State. And that’s why we had to extend your stay,” Gov. Otti stated.