The chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election committee in Imo state, southeast Nigeria, Ahmed Gulak, has alleged that the state governor, Rochas Okorocha ordered the abduction of nine members of the committee.
Gulak had said he escaped being kidnapped in the state, noting that while he was lucky to escape, nine members of his panel were abducted on the orders of the governor.
spokesman of the state chapter of the party, Onwuasoanya Jones, had declared him missing on Tuesday morning.
Jones said Daniel Madueke, chairman of Imo APC, went to the hotel where Gulak was lodged only to find out that he was not in his room.
But speaking with journalists, Gulak said: “Nine out of the 12-member committee were kidnapped by agents of the governor who were led by a team of policemen to the hotel where we lodged,” he said.
The committee chairman said after the abduction of some members of the committee, he and the remaining ones conducted a peaceful exercise which produced Hope Uzodinma, a senator representing Imo west, as the party’s flag bearer for 2019.
Gulak said Uzodinma polled 423,895 votes to defeat eight other aspirants, including Uche Nwosu, Okorocha’s son-in-law.
The committee chairman said he left Owerri under the cover of darkness and made his way to Abuja.
His words: “Myself, Col. Igbanor and Hon Bernard Miko were the only three doing this job, as others disappeared, and we learnt that they were at the government house,” he said.
"So, when we sensed that something was fishy, by 4 am, we left Owerri after concluding the entry of the results.
"I was informed and the AIG zone 9 called to inform me that they went for investigations and discovered that the governor himself and some policemen came and rounded up those members and took them to the government house and until now, they have not been released and anything could have happened to them.
"The election was held, results generated and a winner emerged and the winner is Senator Hope Uzodinma.“My secretary disappeared around 2 am. In fact, the case of Sadiq Bello is most pathetic because he doesn’t know anywhere in Owerri.
"He called a while ago that he has not eaten and has no money on him. That is the price and hazard of this job,” he added.
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