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Governorship candidate of Action Alliance in the 2019 elections in Imo State, Uche Nwosu, has said his arrest while attending his mother’s memorial service was sanctioned by Governor Hope Uzodinma.
Nwosu was arrested on Sunday at St Peter’s Anglican Church Eziama Obaire in the Nkwerre Local Government Area of the state four days after the burial of his mother.
Nwosu, a son-in-law to a former governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha, who spoke to journalists in Owerri, on Tuesday, said the plan was to assassinate him.
The politician chronicled how he arrested and taken to Enugu airport, where he boarded a chartered aircraft to Abuja.
He said that the governor used his chief Security officer and other security operatives attached to the state government house to arrest, humiliate and possibly put him away.
He said he had no hands in insecurity in the state, saying that the young man who accused him in a viral video of giving him money to escalate insecurity in the state was asked to implicate him.
Nwosu advised Uzodinma to eschew bitterness and concentrate more on governance than politics.
He said that those who arrested him, invaded the church, jumped to the altar, disrupted sermon and shot indiscriminately in the church.
While stating that the order was to kill him, Nwosu said that those who “abducted me were masked, hijacked me in church and manhandled him, ordered me to lie on the floor in the vehicle and one of them rested one of his legs on my head.”
Nwosu said, “While the sermon was on going, I saw some military people who came in. I asked my boys to go and welcome them because I thought they escorted a VIP to the church to condole with me over the death of my mother.
“All of a sudden, over 15 masked security operatives jumped into the church. While some rushed to the altar, some came to where I was sitting and ordered me to move or they move me. They started shooting and disrupted sermon that was on going. I demanded to know what was going on but they said they had an instruction to bring me. They manhandled me and bundled me into a one of the vehicles they came in. One of them ordered me to lie down and one of them placed his leg on my head.
“When they drove off, they started making calls in Hausa language and unknown to them I understand Hausa language. They were telling one Shaba who is the Chief Security Officer that they have got me. At Umuaka they stopped and ordered that I should get down. At that point I thought they were to assassinate me. They bundled me into another vehicle and they drove off.
“When we got to Owerri, three other vehicles drove straight to the Government House and the one carrying me drove towards Okigwe Road and begun to ask them where they were taking me to but they never responded to me. They drove towards Okigwe and stopped. At the point, I thought they wanted to assassinate me. They asked me remove my cloth, handcuffed me, snapped me, made a video and sent to the governor’s CSO.
“We continued until we go to Enugu airport. We waited for about one hour, thirty minutes before a chartered flight arrived. We boarded and we landed in Abuja. We moved to force headquarters and we did interview. They accused me of sponsoring insecurity in Imo state. I want to thank the IGP who intervened and ordered my release.”
However, the state commissioner for Information and strategy, Declan Emelumba, said neither the governor nor the state government had a hand in the arrest of Nwosu.
Emelumba said it was false for Nwosu to link the governor to his arrest.
