The Owerri Municipal Labour Party (LP) candidate, Hon Clinton Amadi, has been arrested in Imo State.
Amadi was arrested on Tuesday when he went to the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to collect the certified true copies (CTC) of the results.
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Rather than produce the CTC, the security operatives attached to INEC allegedly bundled him to the Tiger Base of the police command.
But in a swift reaction, the 27 state assembly candidates of the LP said Clinton was arrested by police operatives loyal to a government appointee, adding that the arrest was a ploy to stop them from filing their election petition cases before the deadline.
They said: “Our attention has been drawn to the abduction of one of us, Hon. Clinton Amadi, the Labour Party candidate for Owerri Municipal by those suspected to be goons and policemen attached to a certain government official.
“It has also come to our knowledge, the wicked plot by agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to arrest and detain more LP candidates and keep them out of circulation until the date for filing of such cases as provided by the new Electoral Act expires.
“We therefore call for Hon Amadi’s immediate release while also urging the Imo State police command to investigate the activities of some government appointees who illegally work around the streets of Owerri with detachment of armed policemen with which they intimidate and harass the people.”
The LP candidates maintained that nobody knows the whereabouts of Amadi or his alleged offence as his phone was switched off.
Only last Saturday, the candidates at a briefing disclosed what they described as “the desperation of the APC government in the state which has manifested in their relentless effort at frustrating every attempt made by our colleagues to inspect and have the CTCs of results of the election”.
Amadi served as a lawmaker representing Owerri Municipal at the state assembly from 2007 to 2011.
Meanwhile, INEC has declared the APC candidate, Ugochukwu Obodo, winner and presented him the certificate of return.