Former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been dragged before an Abuja High Court over an alleged failure to pay for a rented crowd during campaigns.
The immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs is said to have reneged on an agreement to pay for a crowd he rented to boost his failed presidential bid.
The case was filed on August 8, 2022, before the Wuse District Court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, by Mr. Ekikeme Ugwu, the National Legal Adviser of Presidential Support Committee (PSC).
The claimant is suing Akpabio and PSC Administrative Officer, Mr. Etta Elijah, for failing to pay up the sum of N680,000 “being amount agreed to be paid for logistics for thirty four attendees, Sixty Thousand Naira (N60,000) only for hiring of two buses and Twenty Thousand Naira (N20,000) only for designing of placards which the Defendants have refused to pay.”
Senator Akpabio, presidential aspirant in the recent All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Primary Election, stepped down at the last minute for eventual winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The claimant claims that only N100, 000 of the sum has been paid for the contract that was successfully executed.
The claimant is seeking the court to answer the following prayers:
“a. AN ORDER of this Honourable Court directing the Defendants to pay the CLAIMANT the Six Hundred and Eighty Thousand Naira (N60,000) only being the amount paid to thirty four persons as logistics that received the 2nd Defendant at the Enugu airport.
“b. AN ORDER of this Honourable Court directing the Defendant to pay the CLAIMANT the sum of Sixty Thousand Naira (N60,000) only being amount paid for the two buses that conveyed the attendees to the airport and Dome Event Center from the party Secretariat in GRA, Enugu.
“c. AN ORDER of this Honorable Court directing the Defendant to pay the CLAIMANT the sum of Twenty Thousand which he paid to the Designer who designed the placards that was used at the airport reception.
“d. AN ORDER of Honorable Court awarding ten percent (10%) interest and twenty percent (20%) post judgement interest.
“e. Three Hundred Thousand Naira (N300,000) being cost of action.”
