Few hours to the conduct of the re-run election in Mbaitoli/Ikeduru federal constituency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disqualified the candidate of All Progressives Congress, Engr Akarachi Amadi over contract scam.
Disclosing this in Abuja on Friday, the INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye said that his disqualification followed a petition against him by the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mrs. Lauretta Onochie.
Okoye maintained that the commission had earlier obtained a court order restraining INEC from recognizing Engr Akarachi Amadi as the candidate of APC, adding that due to grace threat from “some strong” Nigerians, he was tentatively cleared.
He maintained that pressure from the Governing Board of NDDC over the criminal breach of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the Commission to execute a rural road contract from Orji-Orie Mbieri road in Mbaitoli LGA backed up with subsisting court order, the APC Candidate was restrained from contesting.
According to the INEC Spokesperson, Engr Amadi collected N425 million as mobilization fee out of the total N850 million contract sum to construct a six kilometer road, regretting that all efforts to persuade him and his company to complete the project felled on deaf ears.
He maintained that Amadi’s alleged criminal breach of contract is against the new Electoral Act for public office seekers, noting that his alleged dubiousness in connivance with a business mogul identified as his in-law triggered INEC to take the action.
