Globaltimes 
Security agencies, especially the police and the EFCC have been urged to arrest and prosecute the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Imo State, Senator Athan Achonu for allegedly defrauding the Federal Government of N57 billion.
A Non Governmental Organization, United Nigerian Youth Forum, at a press conference in Kaduna, yesterday, addressed by its publicity secretary, Ali Muhammad, accused Senator Achonu and his company Mathan Nigeria Ltd of defrauding the Nigerian government of the said sum under the pretext of building and equipping comprehensive health centres in the 774 local government areas of the country.
They regretted that after collecting an initial N37 billion, Senator Achonu and his company failed to execute 70 percent of the job, yet he went to court and secured an order to be paid additional N20b.
According to them, after forcefully collecting the N20B, Senator Achonu employed the money to prosecute his Governorship ambition instead of making efforts to complete the jobs which contract was awarded in 2006.
They averred that because of the criminal negligence of Senator Achonu and his company, hundreds of pregnant women who ought to have used the health centres have lost their lives.
“Seventeen years after he received payment fully for the execution of the contract, Chief Achonu has not completed the job. In fact, it could be rightly inferred that he abandoned the contract for which he received the initial payment of N37 billion,” they lamented.
Giving a statistics of the stages of completion of the job in the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, the youths insisted that only 30 percent has been successfully executed.
“Since 2006 when the contract was awarded,for the building and equipping of one health centre in each of 774 LGS in the country, only 263 of the 774 health centres have been built and equipped; while 510 health centres are yet to be built,17 years later. That means 70 percent of the job has been abandoned.”
They lamented that even with the non-execution of the said contract, Achonu and his company, only recently obtained a suspicious Court order for the variation of the contract for another N20 billion.
They claimed that it is this N20 billion that Achonu is throwing about in Imo State in for his governorship ambition.
They also pointed out that it is only now that Achonu is contesting the election that he rushed to complete 26 of the 27 health centres in Imo State.
The group accused Achonu of muscling the 774 local governments from where the money is being drawn and therefore asked the security agencies to move in and arrest him since he is not above the law.
“Because we don’t think he is above the law, that is why we are calling on well-meaning Nigerians to call on the relevant security agencies to arrest and prosecute this man and his company. No one should be allowed to defraud the government and people of Nigeria for such mind-blowing amount of money and go scot free”, they insisted.
They pledged that as a Non Governmental Organization, they are ever ready to shed light on this” monumental fraud including testifying in court”, and pleaded with the media not to allow the matter to be swept under the carpet.
