Heads are set to roll at the Imo State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) Owerri, where Henrietta Jacobs, younger sister to Ambassador Nonye Rajis, calls the shots as Chairman and Director General without any previous working experience or pre-requisite qualifications in financial or economic matters.
The former Debt Management Office (DMO) Director General, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, led committee had unveiled large scale corruption, which has stunted the growth of Internally Generated Revenue in Imo state presently put at a paltry N500Million,monthly(exclusion of PAYEE), apparently the least in the whole of the South East Geopolitical Region.
A source within the committee which was recently constituted by Governor Emeka Ihedioha, reveals that Imo state has the potential of generating at least N2 billion monthly implying that a whopping N1.5 billion rip-off per month was perpetrated by the Rochas Okorocha administration for eight years, which scam accounts for the boastings by the said Ex-Governor, that Imolites can hardly count the number of his private or personal investments in Owerri alone.
The source also revealed that all monies generated at the BIR, were hitherto shared among Governor Okorocha’s wife, children and siblings. Rather than deposit such public funds in the government bank accounts, dubious consultants were used as proxies to divert such funds into private accounts, culminating in the fraud that was engendered for eight years.
Staff of the BIR who spoke to Watchdog Newspaper, maintained that Madam Henrietta Jacobs, the General Overseer of New Wave Assembly, who has since completed her multi billion naira Cathedral off Egbu road Owerri, from her rented Ikenegbu apartment, was allegedly positioned to soften ground for first family.
The staff feel handicapped that the said Pastor was offered a statutory appointment with a five (5) year tenure by her benefactor, who thought doing so will save his business.
It was also reported that while the Ex-Governor’s sister Geraldine Obinali, was assigned the collection of IGR from markets, her twin, Gerald Okorocha was in charge of all the motor park revenues. Geraldine, it was who nominated Emeka Duru, of Global Ginikana to run ITC but when he refused to remit all revenues to madam Obinali, they broke up with the two sworn enemies today. Another Okorocha was positioned to appropriate keke levies.
