The Special Assistant to Imo State Governor on Electronic Media, Dr. Ebere Nzeworji, has revealed how much the state government spent on erecting eight ‘controversial’ statues in the state.
According to him, the governor approved between N400,000 and N500, 000 for the building of each of the eight statues, contrary to the opinion of many that N520 million was spent on each.
Nzeworji, on the Peoples’ Voice at Darlying FM in Owerri, said it was not true that millions were spent on erecting statue.
it will be recalled that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, had demanded the probe of Governor Rochas Okorocha over the statues erected in honour of two African leaders, Jacob Zuma and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
SERAP had called on the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC to collaborate with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for a joint investigation of ‘incompatibility and/or apparent and conflict of interest’.
The group had claimed that Governor Rochas “may have spent over ‘N1 billion’ of public funds to build the statues.”
Nzeworji also said that the government had taken delivery of new equipment to the specialist hospital in the state and 21 doctors were currently in the hospital to deliver health care service to residents.
He disclosed that the state government had instituted an ‘’Imo Rural Roads Mobilization Project’’ to handle 27 roads in the 27 Local councils in the state by December.
He said out of the 27 hospitals built, five had been handed over to the military as specialist health institutions.