The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has dismissed the allegation of bribery purportedly levelled against the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, by some APC governors.
The State Publicity Secretary, Godwin Erhahon, who made this known in Benin on Wednesday, was reacting to a report over an allegation of misconduct against the national chairman in a national daily.
According to the report, eight of the APC governors, including the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, had held a meeting with the national chairman where they expressed their displeasure for “collecting gifts from Senator Bukola Saraki before the NASS election, while pretending to be in support of the party’s decision to cede the Senate Presidency to Senator Ahmed Lawan.”
Although the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had refuted the claims, Erhahon said the state chapter of the party had assessed the outcome of the meeting, which, he said, did not bother on the said allegation.
He said, “That publication is a pigment of the imagination of the author. We in Edo have been able to read the statement of the governor and the national chairman and there was no spelt allegation or call for resignation.
“In any case, who can bribe the national chairman and what for? The emergence of the current Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives was something that was not expected; it took everybody by surprise and the governor took his own position.
“Everybody is also aware that President Mohammadu Buhari told everyone to calm down and ensure that the matter was not allowed to break the party. So at what level will bribery come in?”
On the zoning of other principal offices, including that of the Deputy Whip said to have been zoned to the South-South, favouring Senator Francis Alimikhena from Edo, Erhahon noted that the issue of what the national secretariat sent to the Senate had been overtaken by the current leadership of the upper chamber, adding that the “party should reason with the leadership of the National Assembly.”
He also urged the APC governors to cue behind the country’s president and seek peace in the party, rather than maintain rigid positions on the leadership in the National Assembly.(Punch)
