Embattled former governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, has denied reports claiming he has filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and demanded N1bn damages over the invasion of his home in Abuja by the operatives of Economic and Finance Crimes Commission on May 24.
Okorocha in a statement issued in Owerri by his spokesperson, Sam Omwuemeodo, said that he had no reason to sue the AGF because his office was not the one who invaded his home nor took him to court.
Part of the statement read;
“We were concerned with the expected hearing of the bail application today when our attention was drawn to the online stories of N1b suit and engagement of five SANS.
Okorocha has no reason to take either the Attorney General of the Federation or the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, to court and claim N1b damages, over the invasion of his house, since the incident had nothing to do with AGF or his office.
lf Okorocha comes out of detention and along the line and decides to take legal action to press for damages over the invasion of his residence, he knows those who carried out the action. We do not think he would include the AGF or his office.
If Okorocha comes out of detention and decides to walk in that direction, fine. But one fact would be made clear and that is, that the AGF and the office of AGF would not be parts of the action, because they had nothing to do with the invasion of Okorocha’s private residence.
We have done this to keep the record straight. We are looking forward to seeing Okorocha out of detention by the grace of God and the magnanimity of His Lordship, handling the case.”
Meanwhile, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has granted bail to the former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha.
Delivering a ruling in his bail application this morning, the judge granted bail to the embattled former governor in the sum of N500 million and a surety in like sum.
The former governor was arraigned before the court by the EFCC on Monday, May 30 on a 17-count charge. He was accused of conspiring with others, including a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and five companies to steal from public coffers when he served as governor.
He denied the allegations when the charges were read to him.
While ruling on his bail application today May 31, Justice Ekwo ordered that the surety to be produced by Okorocha must be a responsible citizen who has landed property in the like sum of the bail granted to the presidential aspirant. The judge also directed Okorocha to deposit his international passport with the registry of the court and should not travel outside the jurisdiction of the court without the court’s permission.
The judge also ordered the court registry to inform the Nigeria Immigration Service that Okorocha’s passport was in its custody.
Justice Ekwo, however, ordered that the former governor should remain in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) until his bail conditions are met.
