2019 Governorship: Uzodinma returns with Imo APC ticket …Debunks arrest report

Sen Hope Uzodinma, All Progressives Congress, APC governorship candidate for Imo State will arrive the state today weeks after flooring Gov Rochas Okorocha to pick the governorship ticket of his party. The lawmaker representing Imo West Senatorial District in the Senate it was learnt is coming back to the state for the first time since October 1 2018 when the party’s governorship primary election committee headed by Alhaji Ahmed Gulak declared winner of the hotly contested poll. Following his declaration Gov Okorocha and his camp have been waging relentless battle from many fronts and against many leaders of the party particularly the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in an attempt to have Uzodinmas victory upturned. The guber candidate himself held firm his ticket and has stoutly resisted every intrigue and subterfuge contrieved nd unleashed by government to take the ticket away from him. Our correspondent learnt that his homecoming is generating excitement in the state as Imo people from all walks of life await the arrival of the man many have given many aliases for doing what they consider unthinkable in the political history of the state.
Among the citizens the buzz word has been when will the fair skinned senator representing Orlu Zone return to the state acclaimed near impossible feat. But speaking on the issue, an APC stalwart and former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Imo State, Barr. Enyinna Oregbu said the delay in the senator’s arrival to the State was not deliberate as the senator has been engaged in serious meetings both at the senate and within the APC National secretariat.
Enyinna who described Uzodinma’s emergence as APC guber candidate as a good development for both the party and Imo State further stated that all arrangements have been concluded to receive the senator and his entourage to the state.
In a related development, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has said that there is no iota of truth in story currently trending that he was arrested Sunday night by the Special Presidential investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Properties.
In a statement signed by the Director of Media and Special Duties of the Hope Uzodinma Campaign organization, Hon. Declan Emelumba, said the story was planted by Governor RochasOkorocha and his cohorts out of their dare-devil desperation to damage the image of the Senator before the Imo electorate who are 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 correspondents directly and just to one online platform alone. It reads in part: “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.