…No amount of blackmail will distract me- Shehu Sani
Noah Ebije, Kaduna.
The Chairman of the APC Electoral Panel that superintended over the party’s recent primaries in Kaduna State, Mr. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, has alleged that Sen. Shehu Sani had offered him bribe to get an affirmation for his controversial automatic ticket.
Iduoriyekemwen dropped the bombshell while responding to questions over allegations that the committee was bribed to skew the primaries election results in favour of some aspirants of the APC in the state.
But in a twist of event, when contacted on telephone by our correspondent, a member of the APC Electoral Committee, Mr. Akeem Okedara, denied such allegation against Sen. Sani saying, “There was nothing like that, but Shehu Sani wanted to give us something and we turned it down”.
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However, in a swift reaction, Sen. Sani, through his media aide, Abdulsamad Chima Amadi said,”Our attention has been drawn to a mischievous and frivolous news making the rounds that the chairman of the Kaduna APC electoral panel purportedly claimed he was offered financial inducements by Sen. Shehu Sani.
“The committee chairman probably had a dream to that effect. It is laughable for him to claim an aspirant who was the sole candidate cleared in Kaduna central offered him financial inducements.
“First of all, Sen. Shehu Sani virtually had no rival in the primaries he was the only person cleared. So what does he need to bribe the committee for?
“Secondly, when the committee and the state government connived to stage a fake senatorial primaries in Kaduna State, Sen. Shehu Sani made it cristal clear that he wasn’t going to participate in the so called primaries because it was an illegality..
“So, when you look at it from all angles Sen. Shehu Sani had no reasons what so ever to bribe the committee.
“Sen. Shehu Sani is a distinguished and law-biding citizen who has, over the years, earned a good name for himself through his uncompromising stance against corruption.
“It is obvious that some desperate politicians who have become synonymous with failure are behind all this baseless and frivolous accusations.
“Just like all their attempts to malign, frame up, intimidate and harm Sen. Shehu in the past failed. This one too has failed on arrival.
“No amount of blackmail will deter or destract Sen. Shehu Sani. We stand by the mandate given to him by the APC and good people of Kaduna central, and as usual, that mandated shall be put to good use for the betterment of our people.
But in the words of Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, “The only person in Kaduna State who offered me money was Sen. Shehu Sani, through one of my committee members, to inform me that N10 million gift was set aside for the committee chairman. And I said we don’t need the money, asking them what the money was for.
“Even after the primaries, before the announcement of results, Sen. Shehu and his men put pressure on us to come and take the money.
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“He called me several times but we made it clear to him that we don’t need cash inducement at all”.
The Electoral Panel Chairman also disclosed that the incumbent Kaduna Central Senator made last minute efforts to get him to accept the offer, but to no avail.
Iduoriyekemwen, who was also a former Majority Leader of Edo State House of Assembly and one-time board member of the Niger-Delta Development Commission(NDDC), also expressed readiness to forward the telephone number of his Committee member, through whom the pledge of N10 million offer was announced to the leadership of the panel.
The Electoral Panel Chairman also expressed satisfaction with the manner in which the election was conducted, describing it as “peaceful, orderly and rancour-free”.