Defection: Gov Tambuwal In Alleged Bribery Scandal
- Lawmaker alleges N13m inducement
Governor Aminu Tambuwal, who dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday, has been accused of offering monetary inducement to engineer the State lawmakers’ defection to his new party.
The stunning allegation of bribery came from a member of the state House of Assembly, listed among those who refused to defect with the governor to PDP.
According to the legislator, a staunch supporter of former Governor Aliyu Wammako, he was offered N13 million by Governor Tambuwal’s camp as an enticement to defect from the APC.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lawmaker claimed to have rejected the money while insinuating that the 18 other members who left APC for PDP with Tambuwal may have accepted the offer.
Though the report described the claim as unverified, it however said the Assemblyman, who did not want his name in print for obvious political reason, maintained that 11 other members of the house shunned the monetary incentive from Governor Tambuwal.
“We were offered N13 million each to move to the PDP. I, along with 11 other members of the house declined the offer and remain in the party with which we were elected.
”We remain loyal to APC, our leader Sen. Aliyu Wamakko and President Mohammadu Buhari. We cannot join PDP because we cannot return to darkness which the opposition party represents, having experienced the light in APC”.
“No amount of intimidation, political harassment as well as monetary inducement will make us change our political stand.
“We are happy with the recent political development in our state and we will continue to work towards promoting the lofty ideals of our party,” he said.
The Lawmaker said he and 11 other colleagues rejected the inducement to decamp to the PDP because ‘we have our names to protect’
“We have since embarked on house to house sensitization to our teeming supporters on why we remain in our party and why we want them to remain politically committed.”
“We want everybody to remain loyal to our party leaders, shun political thuggery and violence because as progressive we must be seen to be promoting peaceful co-existence for the overall political growth of our party “he said.
He called on APC teeming supporters to participate in the ongoing continuous voters registration exercise.
“Anybody that offers you money, collect it because it is your money that is supposed to be used in providing democracy dividends but diverted for selfish interests,” he said.
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tambuwal, 52, dumped the APC for PDP in a carnival-like ceremony in Sokoto on Wednesday, August 1, 2018.
However, his deputy, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, has reportedly chosen to remain in the APC. – NAN
