The National
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, has dismissed
allegations that he collected bribes of about $80 million to manipulate the
outcome of the party’s primaries in some states and the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja.
Some
aggrieved aspirants are accusing Oshiohmole of collecting various sums in
bribery to twist the primaries.
Speculations
are also gaining currency that he was last week interrogated by the Department
of State Services over the outcome of the recently conducted APC primaries.
An online
media outfit, which allegedly accused the APC chairman of collecting about $80
million dollars in bribes, however, reported that Oshiomhole had become a
target after refusing $500,000 bribe cash from one of the aggrieved APC
governors.
It reported
that the affected governor had wanted the APC chairman to adopt his anointed
governorship candidate.
“It was
gathered that many godfathers and governorship candidates were desperate for
tickets but Oshiomhole stood his ground that he will not compromise party
guidelines,” it further stated.
But
Oshiomhole, who spoke to State House correspondents after a closed door meeting
with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, described the
allegations of corruption against him as reckless insinuation.
He said: “No
tree that will bear fruits that will grow in Sahara Desert and the fact the
publisher of Saharareporters himself is a presidential aspirant we would soon
find out the difference between Sahara and its reporters and a green forest and
its reporters.
“The
unfortunate thing here, however, is that people who specialize in libels, they
take advantage of our peculiar judicial system.
“When I was
a governor in Edo State, they published all kinds of things against me.
“At a point,
I decided to go to court and my lawyer told me that I have to be ready to enter
the witness box to make my case – whether I was ready to go through that
humiliation.
“What is in
the governorship?
“Before I
became the governor, I entered the witness box and I know after being governor
I can still go back there one day.
“So I went
there and I won the case.
“They
awarded damages in my favour.
“But by the
time you want to check the process of the guy who libeled you and so on, if he
sells himself, everything put together, he could not compensate for my legal
fee not to talk of really mitigating paying me as a result of the judgment.”
On the
forthcoming campaign programmes of the APC, Oshiohmole revealed that the
party’s campaign for the 2019 presidential election would focus on character
and integrity of the key candidates.
Buhari is
the APC presidential candidate, while the main opposition Peoples Democratic
Party is presenting former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its candidate.
According to
the party chairman, the APC is fully ready to flag off the campaigns soon.
Oshiomhole
said: “We are fully ready, we have done with our primaries and filled our
nominations.
“As you
know, INEC still has a window between now and first of January to deal with
issues of substitution.
“As of
campaigns, we are ready.
“We are
going to announce the date and programme for our campaigns.
“My idea of
kick-off will be the day we will do our first presidential rally where Mr.
President as our candidate and other candidates, party leaders will assemble in
a venue that will be agreeable to all of us.
“There will
be two sets of messages.
“One, on
what we have done in the past, without failing to remind people of where we
were before, what we are going to do in the next four years and a couple of
things we believe we will be doing differently.
“President
Buhari, if compared to the rest of the candidates, there is no basis to compare
day and night.
“The real
issue in this election is not going to be religion.
“It is not
going to be about ethnicity.
“Central to
the issue and given our past experience as a country, we know that what makes a
difference is the character, the issue of integrity of the candidates.”
According to
Oshiomhole, the campaign is going to be focusing on character and integrity of
those who want to govern the country.
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