By Adedayo Akinwale
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe to render unreserved apology over his unwarranted attacks on the Kogi State Governor, Mr. Yahaya Bello.
The acting Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Yekini Nabena, in a statement issued yesterday, said the party was not surprised that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would peddle falsehood in an attempt to conceal well known and documented truth.
The party said a careful perusal of the facts on ground showed clearly that Senator Smart Adeyemi’s response was initiated by Abaribe’s unprovoked utterances at the floor of the Senate.
The party said: “Indeed, if there is any apology to be tendered, it should be by Senator Abaribe who must retract every statement in the video currently trending, disparaging the achievement and the person of Governor Bello. Senator Abaribe’s utterances were not only false, irresponsible and malicious but most importantly, totally unprovoked. “And on this note, we insist that he must publicly withdraw the false statements made by him, or be prepared to face the full brunt of the law.”
The APC said as expected, the attention of Adeyemi was immediately drawn to the video by well-meaning citizens of Kogi State, who were naturally disturbed by the falsehood of its contents.
The ruling party explained that the three Senators representing Kogi state, Adeyemi inclusive, approached Abaribe, insisting that his false and malicious utterances were not just an assault on Bello, but to all Nigerian youth who have ambition to serve Nigeria.
The party said the Kogi senators tried without luck to persuade Abaribe to retract the verbal and unwarranted attack on Bello particularly as the contents were in its entirety false and not a true representation of the governor, or the state of affairs in Kogi.
It noted that the Senators approached him in a bid to remedy an already bad situation, but Abaribe vehemently refused to heed their call for peace, but rather, he allegedly insisted that he would not disassociate himself from the video.
It added: “It is on record that Abaribe made grievous and false verbal attacks discrediting Governor Yahaya Bello. He personally admitted to this on the floor of the senate. How the PDP has conveniently edited this fact from the sequence of events is unbecoming, but characteristic of the party’s modus operandi.”
“On this note, the strong warning issued by the PDP should immediately be directed at Senator Abaribe who should have considered his governor and constituents before making false and unbridled statements about a performing governor of another state, worst still, refusing vehemently to retract and apologise.”
