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The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has said that there was no iota of truth in story trending online that he was arrested Sunday night by the Special Presidential investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Properties.
But a statement from the panel said that it had been investigating a case of economic sabotage against Uzodinma following his company’s alleged failure to execute a contract of over $12 million for the dredging of Calabar channel awarded by NPA.
In a statement yesterday, the Director of Media and Special Duties of the Hope Uzodinma Campaign organization, Hon. Declan Emelumba, said the story was planted by Governor Rochas Okorocha and his cohorts out of their dare-devil desperation to damage the image of the Senator before the Imo electorate who were poised to vote him in 2019.
Describing the story of his arrest as sensationally false, baseless and unfounded, the statement said Okorocha had refused to come to grips with the reality that his son-in-law would not succeed him as governor and was going all out to damage APC and its governorship candidate in next year’s election just to see if he would give credence to his empty boast that there would be no APC in Imo State without him.
The statement wondered when it became the duty of the Chairman of the said Panel, Chief Obono- Obla to send messages to journalists directly and just to one online platform alone.
It reads: “If there was any arrest, is it not the media department of the panel that will issue such a statement to the entire media and not just to one false platform?” “It is very obvious that Okorocha and his people are behind this evil story They have planned so much against the APC Governorship Candidate, from the phony dud-cheque episode to a non-existent non-assets declaration charge.
Their latest plot is the Calabar dredging contract. However, they should know that the company handling the Calabar dredging contract is Calabar Channels Management Company in which Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has 60 per cent equity shares.
So, if there is anybody to be arrested for anything, then it is the Managing Director of NPA and not a minority partner, Niger Global, in which Sen. Uzodinma is a shareholder.” According to the statement, there was a clear evidence that this was another failed plot by the governor and his men.
“They gave themselves away by their simultaneously attack – as they planted the story on the newspaper’s online platform, their own state publicity secretary of APC Imo State, Onwuasonya Jones had already issued a press statement celebrating the false arrest without understanding the stake of Senator Uzodinma in the dredging contract”, the statement said.
An online platform had reported that Uzodinma was on Sunday evening at about 8:20pm arrested by operatives of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel For Recovery of Public Properties at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.