Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has dismissed claims that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State’s political travails was connected to the N500 million he allegedly donated towards his re-election.
It was reported in one of the national dailies that Amaechi’s travails may not be unconnected with his alleged donation of N500 million to Oshiomhole for his second term campaigns but in a press release signed by his Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Kassim Afegbua, Friday, and made available to newsmen in Benin City, Oshiomhole emphatically stated that at no time did Amaechi donate any money to his second term campaign funds.
According to him, “We had thought of ignoring this so-called allegation as another spurious, very ridiculous and roguish claim by an unnamed PDP chieftain, but for the sake of history and posterity, it is instructive to state that there was no time the Rivers State Governor Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi donated any money, let alone the sum of N500 million either directly or by proxy, to the campaign funds of the Comrade Governor, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.
“Again, we wish to state
unequivocally that there was no time that the Rivers State Governor spent two nights in Benin City before, during and after the campaigns of the Comrade Governor.
“We find it utterly misleading for anyone to deliberately raise unverifiable claims just to give the Rivers State Governor a bad name and portray the Edo State Governor in bad light with respect to campaign funds and management of same.
“The relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2006 [as amended] frown at such bogus donations by either an individual or corporate body for the campaign of any individual candidate running for election. In fact, if anyone is in the breach of such provisions, it is the PDP. The Oshiomhole Campaign Organisation was very conscious of the requirement of the law with respect to donation, reason why it embarked on public fund raising dinners in Lagos, Abuja and Benin City. All those who made donations to the second term campaign of the performing Governor Oshiomhole were well captured in our reports and duly appreciated. There was no where that the Rivers State Governor was captured as having donated, let alone such a whooping sum of N500m.”
Furthermore, he pointed out that for “a country and a democracy such as ours, there should be no crime for any governor to honour the invitation of his colleague’s second term inauguration, especially that of the duly elected Chairman of the Governors’ Forum, because the beauty of democracy and credible elections was the exhibition of the spirit of sportsmanship by the loser and his party, and not this invidious show of hostility by the opposition PDP.
“When Governor Oshiomhole earlier referred to the PDP as a Party of rogues, the party went for his jugular by calling him unprintable names and churning out all manners of lies and concocted tales just to make an impression. With the recent outcome of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum election, which returned Governor Amaechi as duly elected, and following the u-turn of those who participated in the exercise, the Comrade Governor’s roguish description of the PDP has become instructively appropriate. It is better for the PDP to look for other reasons why it has wrongly taken certain actions against one of its own, than looking for convenient ways to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. It is shameful that governors, who claim to be duly elected representatives of their States could lower the bar of credibility and integrity just for the sake of dubious politics,” Afegbua said.
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