Massive Fraud: Is It Not Yet Time To Arrest Alex Mbata?

COLLINS OPUROZOR

There is something interesting in the lengthy resignation epistle of Chief Hope Uzodinma’s former Special Adviser on Political Affairs, one Mr. Batos Nwadike. He had written that Uzodinma has a deliberate policy of empowering and elevating crooked and dishonest people. 

If there is anything which lends credence to that assertion by an obvious and veritable insider, it is the fact that, of all the eminently qualified sons and daughters of Owerri Zone who showed interest in flying the APC flag for Senate, Uzodinma chose a man who has been indicted over monumental financial sleaze by a properly constituted panel, Prince Alex Mbata. 

It is, therefore, pressing to revisit the Mbata Scandal. That issue is the highest of expression of cruelty against Imo State by an ostensible Imo son. It is enough reason to spark off mass outrage by the youths and students whose future was mortgaged by Mbata just for the sake of primitive accumulation of wealth. 

When the Rebuild Imo Government of the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha came to power in 2019, one of the earliest observations was the pedagogical and infrastructural inadequacies of Imo State University, Owerri. In view of that, the Government set up a Visitation Panel to unearth the issues that had hampered that citadel of learning. Mbata was Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of IMSU and was appointed by Chief Rochas Okorocha in 2014. The Visitation Panel, which was headed by Venerable (Prof.) Chinedu Nebo, probed between 2012 and 2019. For those of us who studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, particularly from 2006, the moral depth, intellectual rigor and strong Godly attributes of Prof. Nebo, who was Vice Chancellor at the time, are well-known.

The Panel’s Whitepaper, in paragraph 5.1 entitled ‘Abandoned Building Contracts’, states: “The abandoned building projects have been a source of worry and embarrassment to Imo State University and Imo State Government, and the people as a whole. The abandoned buildings are made up of three numbers of TETFUND Intervention projects, namely; Faculty of Business Administration, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Education Annex Building Projects; and two numbers of NEEDS Assessment Projects, made up of the New Main Library and the Medical Centre Buildings.”

It continues: “Contractor mobilized to site on Monday, 13 January 2015, but commenced work in the last week of March, 2015 due to difficulty in getting occupants of the buildings on the site to vacate.

“By 16 June 2015, the contractor had started having problems with the delayed release and payments of his earned certificates. Between 16 June 2015 and up till 14 October 2015, Arisa Adifice and other contractors of identified TETFUND abandoned projects made four joint requests (16 June 2015, 24 August 2015, 3 September 2015 and October 2015) for payments of earned certificates without success. By December 2017, the contractor abandoned the project.”

“Three Dimensions (3-D) Consultant was engaged at the inception of the contract, but due to reasons best known to the then Chairman of Council, Prince Alex Mbata, who replaced 3-D Consultant with Mayfair Projects Ltd, contrary to laid down procedures by TETFUND. It was stated that the Chairman of Council insisted on citing the vouchers and the cheques before approval for payment. All of the above issues impacted negatively on the execution of the project.”

According to the Whitepaper: “The resulting delays in both raising and payments of earned certificates severely retarded the construction work and made the completion date unattainable.”

What is to be noted here is that the entire contrivances were aimed at fleecing public treasury and enriching private pockets to the end that IMSU is today a citadel of abandoned projects. It is curious that Uzodinma, who claims that part of his mantra is ‘Recovery’, could not move an inch to recover what his henchman, Mbata, has been proven to have diverted from IMSU. 

Today, IMSU students study under the most miserable conditions while a man has enlarged his coast with the resources that should have given an enhanced learning environment to the students. Yet, Uzodinma proceeded to reward him and crown him the Senatorial Candidate of the APC for Owerri Zone. This is unacceptable! A responsible government should have immediately facilitated the arrest and trial of Mbata over this glaring and mind-boggling case of financial underhand! Imo has gone to the dogs!

To be clear, it is shocking that the unrepentant Mbata has now gone to the High Court of Owerri, vide Suit No. HOW/554/2022, to nocturnally seek an Order of Judicial Review, a certiorari, aimed at quashing his indictment by the Whitepaper. This is impunity taken too far! This is the reason that all young persons in Owerri Zone, all students, ex students and prospective students of IMSU, and indeed the entire Owerri Zone, must now rise and ask Uzodinma: “Is it not yet time to arrest Alex Mbata?”