Senate Presidency: Group Raises Alarm on Vote Buying, Seeks intervention of anti-corruption agencies
A Civil Society Organisation(CSO),
Adopt a Goal for National Development Initiative(AGNDI)
has raised alarm over bribery allegations ravaging the Campaign Organisation of one of the aspirants for the 10th Senate Presidency in Nigeria.
The Group in a statement released Sunday, March 26 and signed by its Director of program, Victor B. Martins said the allegation is a weighty one that must not be swept under the carpet.
“We are shocked with reports accusing an aspirant for the position of the Senate Presidency of bribing Senators-elect with the sum of 10,000 Dollars to curry their favours. The despicable act, our group discovered, could be traced to a former Chief Executive of a State from the North who would be inaugurated into the Senate for the first time in June. He has been accused of boasting that he would stop at nothing in getting the highly coveted seat no matter what it would cost, including guile. The Senator-elect who wrote a letter congratulating all Senators-elect mischievously referred to himself in the letter as a Distinguished Senator instead of Senator-elect, apparently to hoodwink new members. The question is how could a fresher that has never stepped his feet into the Senate nor inaugurated refer to himself as Distinguished Senator?”.
Our group calls urgent attention to the issue of this former Governor who though a fresher going to the Senate, already corrupting the system. This is a Governor under whose watch banditry started and ravaged the whole zone. Same Governor was recently indicted by the EFCC alongside the discredited former Accountant-General of the Federation for mismanaging States funds running into several billions. Reports reaching us at the moment indicate that the same Governor has pencilled a wooping N500M to book a whole floor for his Campaign Headquarters at Transcorp Hilton!
Such a wooping sum in hiring a whole floor for a campaign lasting not more than two months?”
Our investigations further reveal that the former Governor is bent on getting the position in order to cover up his numerous corruption cases! Where on earth has a fresher to the parliament pursued the Presidency of the Senate or Speakership in this manner? The ranking rules remain valid for all members to respect not disrespect.
We therefore call on all the anti corruption agencies to swing into action by investigating this allegation and bringing him to book if found guilty. We also call on the President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be very circumspect in choosing whom to support for leadership positions in the parliament as all eyes are on him to clean the nation’s augean stables under his watch.
