An Abuja-based businessman, Dr Maurice Ibe has petitioned the inspector-general of police (IGP), Alkali Baba, over an alleged threat to his life by Ebonyi State governor Dave Umahi.
Ibe, who is a financial consultant, through his counsel, Charles Ude of Charles Ude and Co, in the petition (Ref No. CU/01/EB/2022) to the IGP, appealed to the IGP to forestall the “Illegal and unlawful attempt to abduct and harass him by the governor.”
He urged the IGP to proactively take steps to halt the alleged move by the governor and some police officers he has engaged for the nefarious activity against him.
But in a swift reaction, the Ebonyi State government said the governor does not know any Ibe and has no business with him whatsoever.
In a statement signed by the special assistant to the governor on media and strategy, Mr Chooks Okoh, he said it was clear to all Nigerians how the Paris Club Refund to states were achieved, adding that Ebonyi is not different from other states.
Okoh noted that the person Mr Ibe mentioned in his petition against the governor had apologised to the governor for misleading the public about her case with the state government.
In the petition, Ude said his client, who is also the chief executive officer of Mauritz Walton Nigeria Limited, Abuja, had noticed clandestine moves by some policemen around his home and office premises in unmarked vehicles, which he has reasons to suspect the men were acting on the instruction of the governor, consequently, the need for the IGP to protect him from being attacked or abducted by the policemen sent after him by the governor.
In the petition, the solicitor explained that based on a Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU), Mauritz Walton Nigeria Limited and Andrew Bishopton Limited, acting as partners, entered into a working relationship that enabled them to collaborate on a consultancy contract for Ebonyi State Government, resulting in the recovery of the sum of USD119,419,427.59 for the state, as over-deductions and miscellaneous charges wrongfully made by the federal government of Nigeria on foreign loans utilized by Ebonyi State government from 1995-2002.
According to him, the Ebonyi State government defaulted in the payment of the consultancy fees agreed between her and the consultants, resulting in the filing of Suit No. FHC/PH/CS/35/2022 between Andrew Bishopton Limited and the firm of his client, Mauritz Walton Nigeria Limited versus the government of Ebonyi State.
The originating summons which was instituted at the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Judicial Division, was duly served on the defendants before the hearing commenced in the suit. The Ebonyi State government engaged the services of a legal expert to prosecute her defence at the Federal High Court. However, since his defeat at the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Governor Umahi had resorted to using the Abakaliki Command of the Nigeria Police Force to witch-hunt his client.
Ude referred the IGP to the earlier move of Umahi which was to use the Abakaliki Police Command to swoop on his partner, Jackie Ikeotuonye, the chief executive officer of Andrew Bishopton Limited.
According to the solicitor, his client, along with the chief executive officer of Andrew Bishopton Limited exhausted all diplomatic means to get Umahi to pay them which proved abortive. As a result, they were left with no option than to drag him to the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Division.
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