Senator Rochas Okorocha, on Thursday, failed to honour an invitation from the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into contracts awarded in Imo State between June 2011 to May 2019.
Mr Okorocha was governor of Imo for eight years from 2011 to 2019.
The panel was set up by Emeka Ihedioha who has been removed by the Supreme Court as governor. Hope Uzodinma, the new governor, had told the panel to continue its investigation.
Okorocha was invited on February 20 to be interrogated on contracts awarded during his administration.
The former governor, through his lawyer, C.A.N. Osondu, said he was on a national assignment and requested to be allowed to appear on March 5.
However, on Thursday, Okorocha did not appear before the panel and also did not give reason for his absence.
Mr Osondu told the commission that he could not reach Okorocha to know the reason for his absence.
He, however, said he was informed by Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, that the senator was on another national assignment in the northern part of the country and therefore requested for another adjournment to enable his client appear at a later date.
The commission’s chairman, Justice Benjamin Iheka, displeased with the development adjourned the case to March 16, saying the former governor was not being tried but going through a fact-finding panel.
