The Imo State Government, South-East Nigeria, has confiscated the equipment of a Lebanese construction company mired in the bribery controversy that culminated in the impeachment, on March 28, of the state’s erstwhile deputy governor, Sir Jude Agbaso.

J-PROS, managed by Mr. Joseph Dina, had abandoned work on the Sam Mbakwe Road named after the iconic late former governor of old Imo State, claiming that Agbaso extorted from him N458 million out of the about N1.2 billion released for the project by the state government. Mr. Dina has since vanished from the state.

Speaking with newsmen while inspecting the project yesterday, Governor Rochas Okorocha disclosed that the state executive council has decided to confiscate the equipment abandoned at the site by J-PROS while the state Attorney-General “takes every necessary legal action to ensure that government recovers the unmerited sum paid to the company.”

Meanwhile, work has resumed on the dual carriage road under the close supervision of the Imo State Ministry of Works.

“We are very determined to ensure the completion of this project,” Okorocha told newsmen. “Recall that it was among the very first project we embarked upon shortly on assumption of office, but due to the unfortunate incident involving the contractor and the former deputy governor, we are yet to complete it. However, the state executive council had resolved that the ministry of works takes over the project and ensure its completion through direct labour and by engaging genuine contractors.”

In another development, the state government has decided to dismantle Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)’s installations in major roads in the state capital, Owerri. This, according to Okorocha, is in line with his administration’s urban transformation and beautification of the state capital.

Okorocha told newsmen while inspecting the exercise that arrangements have been perfected to lay the cables and wires underground to ensure decency in the city.

He enjoined Imolites to assist government in actualising the task by complying with the sanitary provisions proscribed by his administration, which he maintained are aimed at returning Owerri to its lost glory as the cleanest state capital in the country.

•Photo shows erstwhile Deputy Governor Agbaso, who was consumed by the bribery controversy.

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