By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has threatened to drag the senate President, Bukola Saraki, to court to prove his allegations of corruption against him.
In a statement issued Thursday by the Chief Press Secretary Simon Ebegbulem, the APC chairman said it was pathetic and irresponsible for Senator Saraki to resort to petty politics.
The Senate President had said in Ilorin, Kwara State on Wednesday that Oshiomhole did not deserve to remain in office as national chairman of the APC on the account of huge allegations of bribery and corruption leveled against him by party members during the recent primaries.
However, Oshiomhole described Saraki, as an “usurper of and pretender” to the position of senate president, adding that he had no moral ground to call for the resignation of the national chairman.
According to the statement, “it is sad that Saraki, who just woke up from slumber occasioned by his crushing defeat at the Port Harcourt presidential primary election 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 libelous 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,” he said.
Oshiomhole said whereas, the basis on which Saraki 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 (NWC) 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,” the statement said.
