Oshiomhole refused $500,000 bribe from APC godfather to anoint his chosen successor as party candidate

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) chairman Adams Oshiomhole refused to accept a $500,000 bribe from a state governor to anoint his candidate as the party's official gubernatorial aspirant according to recent revelations.

Over recent weeks, the APC has been wracked with internal divisions as a result of its divisive gubernatorial and parliamentary primary elections. Across many states, there were complaints about some candidates being imposed on the party, especially by governors who ignored the results of the primaries and proceeded to forward the names of their preferred candidates to APC headquarters in Abuja.

Some governors are also unhappy with the party chairman for refusing to rubber stamp their candidate selections and even met in Abuja to plot his removal. Last week, Mr Oshiomhole was grilled by Department of State Security (DSS) detectives for several hours over allegations levelled against him by some aggrieved party members.

It has now emerged that Mr Oshiomhole is in the bad books of several APC governors for refusing bribes and insisting that the results of primaries be respected. In certain states like Zamfara, Imo, Ondo and Ogun, the governors are unhappy with Mr Oshiomhole for questioning their right to anoint their chosen candidates in several roles.

Already, it has emerged that the APC leadership tried its best to strike a fair deal with Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on a 55% to 45% basis. However, Governor Okorocha wanted a total 100% concession which was unacceptable to the APC leaders.

It is believed that Mr Oshiomhole's refusal to collect bribes from godfathers and candidates accounted for the plot against him. Many godfathers and governorship candidates were desperate for tickets but Mr Oshiomhole stood his ground, insisting that he will not compromise party guidelines.

One party source said: “At a stage, a governor became agitated and offered Oshiomhole about $500,000 to make sure that his candidate got a governorship ticket. The bribe was later hauled in cash to Oshiomhole’s office by one of the emissaries of the affected governors but the APC chairman rejected the bribery.

“What the APC chairman did was to brief some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) on what transpired. He also intimidated some leaders of the party too and the party adhered strictly to its guidelines and the governor’s candidate lost out.

“The governor later turned out to have joined forces in the plot to remove Oshiomhole to teach the APC chairman a lesson. It was surprising to see the governor coordinating nocturnal meetings to sack Oshiomhole."

Following these latest revelations, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the DSS to stay away from party affairs and issues. Also, the president has appealed to those aggrieved among APC governors to sheathe the swords.

One party source said: “The president has however ordered DSS to avoid dabbling in party affairs. He said if there are petitions about any infraction, they should be sent to appropriate agencies as Buhari was worried that the same challenge which the DSS faced on the arrest of judges had re-occurred.

“Okorocha for instance is respected and loved by most of our leaders but we discovered that he cannot get all he wanted in 2019. We offered him a fair deal, saying he should take 55% of the available seats and concede 45% of elective offices to others in the state, he accepted the deal but returned to Imo to take 100% control of everything.

“At this point, we have no choice than to leave his fate to APC members to decide. This was why he lost out.”

Meanwhile, the APC may still retain the current Imo State deputy governor Eze Madumere as running mate to its gubernatorial candidate Senator Hope Uzodinma. NWC members voted to field Senator Uzodinma in preference to Uche Nwosu, Governor Okorocha's son-in-law.