The senator representing Imo West (Orlu Senatorial Zone), Chief Hope Uzodinma whose name recently earned a surprise inclusion as the All Progressive Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate at INEC list, is still being detained by security agencies since Sunday evening in Abuja.
Otherwise, the Special Presidential Investigation Panel For Recovery of Public Property (SPIPRPP), on Sunday arrested the Imo State governorship candidate at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on grounds of allegations bordering on none completion of a contract of $12m for the dredging of Calabar channel.
Chairman of the panel, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, had in a terse statement noted that the lawmaker had been dodging invitation and attempts to arrest him over a period of time, but luck ran out of him at the Abuja Airport on Sunday night.
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.”
Meanwhile, checks at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by Business Hilights revealed that the Authority had made serious efforts before now to either get Uzodinma’s company to deliver the job or refund the money paid to it by the NPA without any result.
A credible source at the NPA on Monday confided in our correspondent that “NPA leadership is on top of fighting corruption and will not keep quiet when owners of companies that failed in their obligations after being paid to walk around the street freely”.
“You are aware that the SPIPRPP is mandated to recover all missing or abused government monies. So the matter is very simple. Let him give reasons why the job his company was paid for more than four cannot be delivered. Simple!
Efforts to speak with the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman failed as at press time.
