'WE WON'T WITCH-HUNT ANYBODY WHILE PROBING ALLEGED LOOTING IN ABIA' – PANEL

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Alex Otti, Governor of Abia State

The Panel of Inquiry for the Recovery of Government Property and Funds in Abia has come out to assure the public that there shall be no witch-hunt in the discharge of the assignment that was given to it.

The chairperson of the panel, retired Justice Florence Duruoha-Igwe, gave this assurance  on Tuesday, August 15, 2023 in Umuahia.

At the inaugural sitting of the panel, she was quoted to say "The panel will discharge its duty faithfully and impartially."

According to her, the panel was mandated to thoroughly investigate alleged looting of government property and funds and the conversion of the resources to personal use by some government officials between May 2015 and 2023.

She affirmed that the panel would make use of all the powers provided by the Laws of Abia State of Nigeria (2005) in relation to the obtaining of evidence in conducting its proceedings.

Justice Duruoha-Igwe said “Ours is not an inquisition and we shall not carry on as if we have already targeted and branded anyone as guilty.


“We are hopeful that we shall enjoy the maximum cooperation of the petitioners, counsel, witnesses and the public. This will make for a speedy disposal of matters brought before us.

“We also pray to God to help us to make the right recommendations’’ 

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Umuahia Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Jasper Ejimofor, commended Abia State government for setting up the panel of inquiry. He, however, called for the backdating of the period of reference to begin from May 2003 as against May 2015 which was given to the panel.

He emphasized that the looting of government property and funds was highly unacceptable and expressed optimism that the panel would live up to expectation. Also addressing the panel, the Attorney-General of Abia, Mr Ikechukwu Uwanna, charged it to discharge its duty creditably and promptly.

“I call on members of the public to be bold and to be courageous in supporting the panel with whatever its needs to do this job creditably.


“We will focus on addressing the ills that happened between 2015 and 2023 and with the outcome, we will consider extending the inquiry to the preceding administration if need be,’’ Uwanna said.


The panel was inaugurated by Gov. Alex Otti on June 26, 2023 to probe his predecessor administration

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