Sen. Hope Uzodimma denies being arrested over ballot thumb printing

Yesterday, it was reported that Sen. Hope Uzodimma and some family members were arrested by police in Imo state for allegedly thumb-printing ballot papers meant for the governorship rerun election. He just released a statement saying it's not true. Read below...

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.