Mention Those I Received Bribe From, Oshiomhole Challenges Saraki

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has challenged the Senate President, Bukola Saraki to name the party member that allegedly gave him bribe to influence his decision regarding fielding of names of candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Some aggrieved members of APC have protested some of the names sent to INEC by the party as its standard-bearers, while some other party members have called for the resignation of Oshiomhole, over alleged corruption.

Saraki had in a recent statement attributed to him, said that the embattled national chairman of the ruling APC had no moral right to remain in politics following allegations of kickbacks in dollars reportedly levelled against him by his members.

“Oshiomhole is somebody, who has been told to have been collecting not even naira but dollars from candidates and he is being accused by his party’s aspirants and Governors.

“I don’t think he has any moral ground, even to continue to be in politics not to talk about being a Chairman of a party.

“I remember in those days even Oyegun, they never accused him of something like this. I have left that party. I’m sure the President, based on integrity, knows the right thing to do,” Saraki said while addressing journalists in Ilorin on Tuesday on the sidelines of the sixth remembrance prayer for his late father, Dr Olusola Saraki.

But Oshiomhole, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Simon Ebegbulem, while reacting to Saraki’s allegations described him as a “politically drowning” man.

The former Edo State Governor also threatened to sue the Senate president, if he fails to mention one aspirant that allegedly gave him money.

The statement reads: “It is sad that Saraki, who just woke up from slumber occasioned by his crushing defeat at the Port Harcourt presidential primary of his party, could degenerate to such a low level.

“It is equally sad, but not unexpected, that Saraki, who is politically drowning, would make such libellous comments against the national chairman of the APC. And I challenge Saraki to mention one name of an aspirant that gave money to the National Chairman or we file a legal action against him.

“Whereas the basis on which he made those comments was tenuous and unjustifiable, it is on record that Saraki has been in the eye of investigations by the EFCC and the ICPC for sundry cases of corruption.

“That is the same man that has taken it upon himself to question Comrade Oshiomhole’s credibility.

“We challenge him to mention one person who has claimed that he gave money to Oshiomhole to influence him and the decision of the party’s national working committee in the just-concluded primary elections.

‘We insist that Saraki with his kind of prebendal politics is nothing but a monumental disgrace to the nation’s democracy.”