Mass defections: Bribery scandal rocks National Assembly, Benue State

The Presidency and the All Progressives Congress are currently fighting hard to prevent more members of the ruling party in the National Assembly from leaving for another party.

There are allegations that apart from the automatic tickets offered to the lawmakers, some key members of the National Assembly have been paid to stay back while others have been promised cash rewards.

A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Timi Frank, alleged that the Presidency and the APC are offering incentives to members of the Senate and House of Representatives to impeach the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, as presiding officers of the two chambers, respectively.

Penultimate Tuesday, 37 representatives and 14 senators had defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported on July 27, 2018, how President Muhammadu Buhari, at the closed-door meeting he held at the President Villa two days earlier, charged the APC caucus in the Senate to maintain its majority status as the gale of defections hit the National Assembly.

One of the lawmakers at the meeting had said that Buhari expressed disappointment over the defection of 14 senators.

Reacting, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta-Central), who is a prominent member of the Parliamentary Support Group, a group of APC federal lawmakers loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari, dismissed Frank’s allegation as nonsense.

According to him, the Presidency and the APC did not need to bribe the lawmakers to carry out their legislative duty.

Omo-Agege said, “That (allegation) is arrant nonsense. I don’t dwell on rumours. This character you mentioned is chasing shadows. The Presidency does not believe in this kind of thing. This President, as you know, will not offer any inducement, financial or otherwise, for anybody to carry out what is otherwise a lawful act.

“I can tell you that this is just a figment of his infantile imagination. They are the ones who have indeed offered money to people in the past to carry out certain deeds. I can assure you that there is nothing like that.”

One of the 14 senators, who left the APC, disclosed to one of our correspondents on Friday that a popular lawmaker from the North-West who had been part of those that threatened to leave the ruling party, backed out at the last minute.

The source, who is from the North-Central, said the North-West senator attended a meeting led by Saraki, where the list of those planning to defect was announced penultimate Tuesday.

“The meeting was held in the night. When we finished, he headed to the Presidential Villa to disclose all that was discussed to them there. He was given money but unknown to him, his governor had set him up. His activities were videotaped and the evidence will be used against him. He did not know that as he was a mole among us, we also have our mole among them,” the source said.

Also speaking to one of our correspondents, a senator from the South-West said with the current controversy over which party is in the majority in the Senate, both sides would consider wooing the two ADC lawmakers ahead of a possible headcount.

“I suspect that the ADC senators will stick with Saraki in the PDP because they have benefitted from Saraki’s leadership. The APGA senators might go to the APC for ‘political security’ when it is voting time,” the senator said.

SUNDAY PUNCH further learnt that there are cases of cash exchanging hands in some states too.

In Benue State for instance, members of the House of Assembly are allegedly smiling to the bank over the battle of supremacy between Governor Samuel Ortom and his political godfather, Senator George Akume.

Ortom had last week accused Akume of offering N4m each to 22 lawmakers out of the 30 members, to impeach the governor.

The governor had defected from the APC to the PDP along with 10 members of the House, out of the 17 APC members.

The APC in the state had also accused Ortom of inducing the 22 lawmakers with a total of N110m to impeach the Speaker, Terkibir Ikyange.

The state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Peterhot Apeh Apeh, told one of our correspondents in Makurdi, that Ortom allegedly gave out N2m to each of the 22 lawmakers through a middleman with the promise to give them the balance of N66m immediately the Speaker was removed.

He said that the governor later reneged.

Apeh accused the governor of being responsible for all the troubles in the state Assembly, having called those loyal to him to initiate impeachment process against the former Speaker.

Reacting, Ortom’s Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, described the APC’s allegation as “a lie from the pit of hell.”

Akase said, “Anyone who said that should tender proof. The governor has never and will not bribe anyone to support him. Those who are doing that are doing that because they know that the game is up.

“The eight members who made that illegal move know that the game is up. That is why the members and their paymaster have resorted to cheap blackmail and propaganda to tarnish the image of the governor.”

In Sokoto State, there was an allegation that Governor Aminu Tambuwal offered N13m to each member of the state House of Assembly to defect with him to the PDP.

When contacted to confirm the alleged inducement, a member of the House, Sani Yakubu, (APC, Gudu), denied being approached by anyone or induced in any form to leave the APC.

“Nobody approached me with money to defect from APC. If there was such thing, I was not a party to it. It would have been illogical of anyone to discuss that with me because they know I am a die-hard supporter of Senator Aliyu Wamakko,” he said.

Other members, Malami Galadanch (APC Sokoto North), Bashir Muhammad (APC Shagari) and Zakari Rabah (APC Rabah), whose names featured among those that rejected the offer, did not pick calls made to them or reply text messages from one of our correspondents.

Source: Punch