A judge of the High Court of Owerri, Justice Fred Njemanze has ruled that the Senator Owelle Rochas Okorocha, and his family are to permanently forfeit to the Imo State Government over 500 properties acquired by them between 2011 and 2019.
The properties to be forfeited by the Senator representing Imo West Senatorial Zone, include the popular Royal Palm Springs Hotel in Owerri, Eastern Palm University, Ogboko; IBC staff quarters, are contained in pages 226 to 272 of the Imo state White Paper report on recovery of lands and other related matters.
Justice Njemanze gave the final forfeiture order while delivering judgment in a suit marked HOW/M1191/2021 instituted by Louis Alozie on behalf of the state government
But Okorocha’s lead counsel, Oba Maduabuchi, vowed to challenge the judgment in a higher court. He described the verdict as “perfidy of justice,” saying that “even a primary school pupil knows that it cannot stand.”
In his judgment yesterday, Justice Njemanze noted that legal team failed to give verifiable reasons why a final and absolute forfeiture order should not be given in favour of the government.
The judge also held that the application against the government by Okorocha’s lawyers was not properly filed. He described it as a “surplusage,” a term in law which means a useless statement completely irrelevant to a matter.
