Senator Uzodinma Says Neither He Nor His Family Were Ever Arrested

Senator Hope Uzodinma of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has denied
reports that he was arrested for rigging the Imo state supplementary
election.

A statement issued on behalf of the Senator on Sunday reads:

Senator Hope Uzodimma (Imo West) has cautioned politicians in the
country against ridiculing and tarnishing the hard reputation of their
opponents.

He said politicians who indulge in such act were not helping Nigeria's
fledging democracy to thrive but were wittingly and unnecessarily
heating up the polity.

Reacting to allegations that he, along with some of his family members
were arrested by the police in his Omuma country home in Imo State
over alleged electoral malpractices during last Saturday's re-run
Governorship and House of Assembly Elections in the State,Uzodimma
said that neither he nor any member of his family was arrested.

He said as a lawmaker who has distinguished himself in the Upper
Chamber,he would not break any of the country's laws or any law for
that matter and that he would not encourage any of his family members
to do so.

Uzodimma said that what transpired on the day is that the All
Progressives Alliance (APC) in the state in concert with some thugs
and the party's agents had unsuccessfully tried to snatch some ballot
boxes from Oru East and Oru West which are the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP)'s strongholds under his leadership in the state.

"Vigilant members of the PDP were able to foil the opponents' attempts
and having failed in their bid they resorted to blackmail,ridicule and
tarnish my name.I know this is elections period but to concort any
story at a given time to disparage an opponent is unbecoming.This is
unfortune", he added.

The Senator said he was the person who called in the police when he
was alerted of the attempts to hijack the ballot boxes " and the
police promptly came and brought the situation under control.For
people to turn around to say the direct opposite is unfortunate".

He appealed to politicians to be decent in their politicking and avoid
those actions that could bring the integrity of their opponents into
disrepute as such will only heat up the polity with dire consequences.