The Imo State House of Assembly has impeached the State’s Deputy Governor,Jude Agbaso.
Twenty five out of the 26 lawmakers in the Assembly approved the impeachment.
Agbaso was under investigation for an alleged N458 million bribe. The number two citizen has denied the allegation. His supporters have cried foul, alleging that he was being victimised. But the camp of Governor Rocha Okorocha insisted that Agbaso’s time was up.
The actions of the House was dismissed by the supporters of the deputy governor as stage managed to push Agbaso out of the way, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
The proponents of this view were not swayed by the fact that the ad-hoc committee set up by the House to investigate the financial allegations against Agbaso by a contractor handling road projects in the state indicted Agbaso of the crime and subsequently proceeded to impeach him.
Agbaso, a former Commissioner of Works and Transport, was accused of abusing the privileges of his position by corruptly enriching himself.
But in a spirited attempt to belittle the weight of the accusations brought against him and to curry public sympathy, the deputy governor said that his travail was politically motivated. He alleged that certain people were eager to get him out of the way so that his boss would not be challenged in his second term bid.
He disclosed that the governor, who he accused of witch-hunting him, signed an agreement with his elder brother, Chief Martins Agbaso, to serve only one term and handover to his brother who gave him (Okorocha) the platform to emerge as governor in 2011.
Agbaso also accused Okorocha of inducing the members of the House with financial gratifications to move against him. “The contractor that has been falsely accusing me was actually nominated by Okorocha, who approved the payment of N1.3billion to the contractor for a job not yet done”, he added.
The deputy governor’s brother, Chief Martin Agbaso, described the deputy governor as a victim of political manipulations, ahead of the 2015.
“We are a hard working family and do not indulge in fraud. So, I can state authoritatively that the deputy governor, who is my blood brother, is framed up because of politics. He could not have committed the offence for which he is vilified”, he maintained.
Hard as the deputy governor tries to extricate himself from the allegation, public interest in the ongoing probe of the contract scam by the House has continued to heighten with a call on the lawmakers to ensure that, if Agbaso was culpable of the financial crime, he should be impeached and prosecuted.
The older Agbaso alleged that he had an agreement with Okorocha to do one term. That the impeachment was part of the Okorocha’s grand plot.
The House of Assembly, in a swift response to the deputy governor’s claim, restated that he was indicted by the report of the ad-hoc committee, which independently investigated the allegation against him.
In a statement signed by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon Acho Ihim, the House insisted that Agbaso was merely wiping up sentiment by employing cheap political blackmail to divert public attention from the issues of embezzlement and abuse of office.
The Commissioner of Information, Mr. Chinedu Offor, also described his statements as diversionary and unfounded.