Politics
BOMBSHELL: Achimugu, Atiku’s nemesis exposes how Okowa bought VP with $5million
A fresh can of worms has been opened by Michael Achimugu, the whistleblower at the root of the current credibility crisis being faced by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 25 election, with a revelation that Ifeanyi Okowa, the running mate is also has his hands soiled in the corruption pie.
Achimugu, who alerted Nigerians about how Atiku, as Vice President under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, opened a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), through which they pillaged the Nigerian common purse through shady contracts, revealed in a fresh video, part of the series he promised the public, how Okowa, currently the Delta State Governor, paid $5million, more than N5billion, to a retired top General in the Nigerian Army, with which he practically bought the position of Atiku’s running mate.
As in the case of Atiku, where he provided audio evidence of the conversation, where the former VP, seemed to have confirmed the corruption deals, he also provided an audio conversation he had with a top aide of the PDP flagbearer, who gave insight into how armed with the money, the General went to work, to seal the deal.
In making Okowa his choice, Atiku had dumped Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State, favoured by the selection committee raised by the former VP in the PDP to help him in selecting the suitable candidate as the running mate, a development, which did not go well with some prominent and ordinary members of the party.
Though Wike had since dismissed the suggestion of being unhappy with the decision, he has since led a rebellion, through a body known as G-5 Integrity Group, consisting five governors of the party and some other prominent members, who had sworn that they would not support Atiku’s presidential campaigns as long as Iyorchia Ayu, remained the National Chairman of the party, on the ground that it was against the spirit and letters of the PDP constitution for the positions of the presidential candidate and party chairman to come from the same section of the country.
In the video, where he explained that Atiku’s problem with Wike did not start in the PDP primaries, where the former VP beat the governor to a second position to pick the party’s ticket, Achimugu, narrated how in 2020 during the COVID-19 restrictions, he had a conversation with his boss, via email, where the former told him that because Wike would not afford to compete, due to the fact that he would need to save some money to live a good life later, he would literally “be a lame duck” in 2022.
“There was nothing Wike could have done that would sit well with Atiku, especially as Atiku’s cabal feared that Wike’s strong personality would be a problem for them if they want to control him. And sure, they would want to control him, after all, they do have control over their own master.
“Now, you’re going to like this. Governor Okowa of Delta State is Atiku’s running mate. Prince Olatunji Olusoji, is Okowa’s Senior Adviser on Special Duties. He’s a party-loving man and spent his money on Atiku’s campaign. You can see from his WhatsAPP chart and phone conversations with me that he does not want Atiku and Okowa to win. He uses very strong words like ‘Okowa must perish.’ He describes Atiku as desperate, a betrayer and deceitful.
“Prince Olatunji is angry about the looting of the resources of Delta State to fund Atiku’s desperation. He goes on to accept that Governor Okowa, his employer, paid a bribe of $5million to a certain General Gusau, who along with the PDP Chairman, Ayu, went around to meet some notable people in Nigeria to make sure that Okowa, rather than Governor Wike emerged as the VP candidate of the party.”
Achimugu, therefore urged his audience to: “Listen carefully to his words, read carefully his messages and understand the true state of mind of genuine Atiku followers and supporters, who are still within that system. Olusoji is not an ex-aide or a former aide like myself. He is a currently serving aide, who is angry about injustice, about corruption and the likes. Will you also accuse him of having collected N200million from some other opponents? Will he be called a blackmailer as well? Listen to the genuineness of his anger and understand the true state of mind of a lot of Atiku supporters and aides, whose testimonies I’ll also be putting out in the sequel to this episode.”
Hear the conversation:
Olatunji: Atiku self no get money again
Achimugu: Does he have the kind money to contest election now?
Olatunji: He does not have money to run this election. He’s broke!
Achimugu:But why Atiku go defect again? Who are Atiku’s advisers?
Olatunji: Na Okowa and Ayu na him mislead am. Okowa and Ayu, especially Ayu. Okowa is using Ayu to do the damage.
Achimugu: But the damage will be for all of them now! The entire party loses, no be all of them lose?
Olatunji: You know what happened, before the primaries, Okowa and Ayu went round. Na Ayu carry Okowa, Okowa went to give General Gusau $5million.
Achimugu: Wow!
Olatunju: So General Gusau went to work on IBB
Achimugu: Okay!
Olatunji: IBB and Gusau were the ones who imposed Okowa on Atiku. You no see as Wike disgrace Atiku?
Achimugu: Yes now!
Olatunji: I support Wike o! I stand with Wike!
Achimugu: I stand with Wike!
Olatunji: You know say Atiku de lie. He exposed Atiku the way Atiku de lie. He finished Atiku
Achimugu: Yes now!
Olatunji: Atiku knows about the plot, he was just going to deceive Wike. Now, Wike don disgrace am for public now.
Achimugu: You see your governor, don carry Delta State enter debt, I hear say e collect loan of N140billion over Atiku matter?
Olatunji: Ahh! The total debt wey e don collect na almost N250billion
Achimugu: Jesus!
Olatunji: Almost N250billion e don collect over this Atiku matter
Achimugu: Hmm!
Olatunji: We e want take sponsor Atiku
Achimugu: Atiku self no get money again?
Olatunji: Does he have the kind of money we dey take contest election?
Achimugu? How does Nigeria get better. Like you rightly said in your message to me the other time, you said Atiku will not appoint people based on competence because he has made promises to different people!
Olatunji: Of course!
Achimugu: So, how’s he going to make the country work? How
Olatunji: Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere.
Achimugu: I won’t lie to you, I don’t see you people winning this election o!
Olatunji: Dem de look for money wey dem want to use live life. Na dem papa money dem want to use extort people.
Achimugu: Na waa o! yes!
Olatunji: Craze people. Their story full everywhere o
Achimugu: Kai! Dam puru ba!
Olatunji: Their story full everywhere for town! Their story full everywhere for Abuja. People don know dem!
Olatunji: Still dem wan extort people, use dem papa election take make money!
A legal tussle is in the offing to determine the fate of the June 20 by-election to fill the vacancy in the Enugu North senatorial district at the National Assembly, following the decision of the Labour Party (LP) to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to exclude it from participating.
INEC had approved the participation of only three political parties for the exercise to fill the vacant seat left by Okey Ezea, who died last year, to the exclusion of scores of others including the LP under whose platform the former Senator won the seat in 2023.
Ken Asogwa, spokesman of the party, who gave the update on the next line of action, said LP had already approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, to challenge the decision on the ground of wrongful exclusion, saying that the party was deeply disturbed over INEC’s action, especially the reason it gave for it.
Asogwa, who conveyed the decision through a statement on Monday, wondered how its candidate would made to pay for the ineptitude of INEC itself, which failed to carry out its constitutional responsibility.
Stressing that the party complied with all statutory requirements and procedural guidelines, but was still denied access to upload the particulars of its candidate on INEC’s nomination portal, the statement, added: “Up until the close of the submission window on June 2, the party made several efforts, including formal protests and correspondences to the commission, seeking the resolution of the issue, but these efforts yielded no positive result
“The party fulfilled every legal and administrative obligation required under the Electoral Act and INEC’s extant regulations in the nomination of its candidate. Labour Party finds it difficult to understand the basis upon which it had been excluded from an election in which it had a legitimate and undeniable stake.
“It is both disturbing and deeply concerning that the head of Elections and Party Monitoring (EPM) in Enugu State reportedly justified his refusal to transmit the report of the Labour Party’s primary election on the ground that he was out of town on the day the exercise was conducted.
“This excuse is untenable and raises serious questions about the discharge of official responsibilities. Labour Party cannot be made to suffer the consequences of an official’s absence, negligence, incompetence or dereliction of duty.
“Electoral processes and the constitutional rights of political parties cannot be subjected to the convenience or personal circumstances of individual officers. If the officer was unavailable, it is incumbent upon him or INEC in Enugu to ensure that appropriate arrangements were made for the monitoring and reporting of the exercise.
“INEC should not be penalising a political party that duly complied with all statutory requirements. The Electoral Act only requires political parties to duly notify INEC of their primaries. The party complied fully with this statutory requirement. The legality and validity of the exercise cannot be vitiated by INEC’s absence, as neither the Electoral Act nor the commission’s regulation made its physical presence a mandatory condition for the conduct of a party primary election.”
Expressing confidence in Joash Amupitan, INEC Chairman to do the right thing, he however called on the commission investigate the actions taken by its staff members in Enugu and take decisive action against anyone found culpable.
His words: “Electoral institutions derive their legitimacy from public trust and every effort must be made to protect the integrity of the electoral process. It would amount to a grave injustice for Labour Party to be denied the opportunity of presenting a candidate in an election convened to fill a vacancy created by the death of one of its serving senators.
“Such an outcome would not only undermine the rights of the party and its supporters but it tends to diminish the democratic choices available to the people of Enugu North senatorial district in the coming by-election.
“As the party places its confidence in the impartiality and wisdom of the Nigerian judiciary, it urges all its members and supporters in Enugu North and across the country to remain calm while the matter is being determined by the courts.”
A conciliatory Atiku Abubakar, in magnanimity with victory, extended the olive branch to Rotimi Amaechi and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, the pair he defeated on Wednesday night to clinch the ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for next year’s presidential election.
He appealed to both men never to abandon the party ahead of the election, scheduled for January 2027, but to close ranks to ensure victory for both party, Nigeria as a country and the people currently under the bondage of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Extending the olive branch shortly after being handed the party flag, officially declaring him as the candidate, he said: “I therefore appeal to all those who feel aggrieved to come back to our party and close ranks with the rest of us. In particular, I invite Chief Rotimi Anechi and Alhaji Muhammad Hayatu-Deen to join me in this fight to save our democracy and our country.
“As I said previously, there are no winners and no losers. Our people look up to us for leadership and I am ready to lead,” he said.
He added that he would work with other aspirants and stakeholders to build the party ahead of the general election.
“I shall work with you all to continue to build our party. I will campaign with you and if Nigeria’s leaders demand it, govern with you to build a country that works for all of us.”
The appeal is coming hours after both Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and former Minister of Transportation and Hayatu-Deen, former Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), rejected the result, even before it was announced, citing what they described as manipulation of the voting process, with Hayatu-Deen saying he would not attend the announcement of the result.
Regardless, Atiku, Nigeria’s former Vice President between 1999 and 2007, said he truly humbled and excited to lead the party into the next elections, adding that he was particularly excited by the party’s demonstration of internal democracy despite the position of naysayers.
Hear him: “I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment.
“Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.
“I thank the primary elections Committee for organising peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries. I thank the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.
“With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin. We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections in order to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long-suffering people from this government.”
“I will not be attending the announcement of the ADC Presidential Election Results today. I am concerned by reports from across the country of widespread vote rigging, some of which I myself observed, and will therefore be taking advice on my next steps.”
These were the exact words of Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, one of the presidential aspirants of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), with which he cast a slur on the ongoing presidential primaries of the party, hinging his position on reports of fraud trailing the exercise.
Hayatu-Deen, a second timer in the search for the nation’s number one job, ran against Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation.
In a statement on his assessment of the exercise which began on Monday, the renowned economist Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), used his X platform to convey his dissatisfaction with the process.
The ADC which said the collation for the exercise would take place in Abuja had urged aspirants, party leaders, delegates, and members to conduct themselves peacefully and uphold party unity.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, who described the exercise as a defining moment for both the ADC and Nigerians seeking a credible political alternative, maintained that it remained committed to internal democracy and a transparent leadership selection process.
“The ADC remains proud to stand today as the only truly democratic party in Nigeria because it is the only political party whose choice of presidential candidate is determined through open primaries,” he said adding that the conduct of aspirants and party members during the exercise would reflect the leadership culture the ADC seeks to promote.
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