By Baron Ike
The 2019 Imo State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Hope Uzodimma has denied he was arrested by the police, describing news of his purported arrest as a ruse and the handiwork of political opponents.
The Special Presidential Investigation Panel For Recovery of Public Property claimed it arrested Uzodinma on Sunday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Chairman of the panel, Okoi Obono-Obla, said in a short message on Sunday that the panel arrested Uzodinma, the senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, over failure of his company to execute a contract of $12 million for the dredging of Calabar channel.
Obono-Obla said the contract was awarded to Uzodinma by Nigerian Ports Authority and that he had been evading arrest for about a year until the Sunday encounter.
The statement read: “This evening, at about 8.20pm, operatives of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel For Recovery of Public Property at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport arrested the APC governorship candidate in Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, after disembarking from an Air Peace P47324 flight from Lagos.
“The panel is investigating economic sabotage against Senator Uzodinma arising out of the failure of his company to execute a contract of $12m for the dredging of Calabar channel awarded by the NPA.”
But Uzodinma denied being arrested.
He told reporters who had on Sunday evening invaded his Maitama home in Abuja to inquire about the purported arrest that some plain clothes men claiming to be police officers attached to the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property accosted him at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja on his way from Lagos on Sunday evening where he attended a private function.
Uzodinma said: “The men claimed they were looking for me in respect of my alleged non-assets declaration by the Presidential Panel. I demanded for the warrant of arrest which they said they don’t have but that the Chairman of the Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property wanted to see me. I told them if it is true, they should do the right thing by getting a warrant of arrest and not inviting me on a Sunday.”
Uzodimma who represents Imo West Senatorial District (Orlu Zone) said “after my demand for an arrest warrant and that police invitations are extended only on week days, the so-called policemen immediately disappeared and I drove back to my house with my security details. Nobody arrested me”.
The Governorship hopeful added: “I have never been invited by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property or written formally by the Panel over my purported non-assets declaration. I begin to wonder what the motive behind all these is. I have never defaulted in my assets declaration since I became a public officer. The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) which is statutorily in charge of assets declarations has all my documents”.
He appealed to his teeming supporters to remain calm and disregard the campaign of calumny, urging his political opponents to embark on meaningful engagements instead of character assassination.