Barely few days after the judicial commission of inquiry set up to investigate the sales of valued assets belonging to the state by the past administration rounded off its assignment, the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has declared that his administration would recover embezzled public funds from contractors.

The Governor who was represented by the Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Emeka Woke, made the declaration on Friday as he received the Task force report on the Renovation of selected state owned secondary schools.

“Inasmuch as I am continuing with the important  ongoing projects i inherited where Rivers State tax payers’  money have been misappropriated, I will not relent in ensuring that such funds are recovered” .Governor Wike assured members of the taskforce that the contractors who defrauded the state of N2b in the immediate past administration will not go scot free.

He commended the taskforce for their hard work in compiling the report and thanked God that they did not record any ugly incident during their assignment.

Speaking earlier, the chairman, Taskforce on Inspection of Government Secondary Schools, Eze (Surveyor) Otoma Eric, who informed the governor that the inspection was carried on selected secondary schools across the 23 Local Government Areas of Rivers State,  said  the entire project was mismanaged by the Rotimi Amaechi ‘s administration.

According to him, contracts were awarded in 24 out of 42 secondary schools and the contractors were given 30% value of the contract as mobilization fees.

Eric said  the  contracts  were awarded   with disregard to the due process panel  by a special three-man committee made up of  former Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru, former Secretary to the State Government, Mr. George Feyii and former chairman of  Senior Secondary Schools’ Board, Chief Allwell Onyeoso.

The taskforce boss said that  the awards   defied the Rivers State Procurement Law of 2008 as there were no newspaper advertisement calling on interested contractors to  bid.

He further explained that many of the contractors got mobilised but did not visit the project site, while others did the job haphazardly  and  a few got money but were not assigned any project sites.