One-time Governor of Akwa Ibom State and immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has been dragged to court over alleged failure to pay for a crowd rented to boost his aborted presidential bid.

Court papers sighted by News Express showed that the case was filed on August 8, 2022, in the Wuse District Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

The claimant, Mr. Ejikeme Ugwu, National Legal Adviser of Presidential Support Committee (PSC), is suing Akpabio and PSC Administrative Officer, Mr. Etta Elijah, for failing to pay 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.”

Akpabio, the PSC National Coordinator and a Presidential Aspirant in the recent All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Primary Election, who stepped down at the last minute for the eventual winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The litigant is claiming that only N100, 000 of the agreed sum has been paid for the successfully executed contract.

The claimant is praying the court for the following:

“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.”

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