AC exposes FG over alleged $500m bribery to lawmakers
The Action Congress (AC) said the false story being peddled by the federal government, over the alleged $500 million bribery paid to lawmakers to support President Olusegun Obasanjo’s term elongation plan, was fabricated by the government to drive a wedge between the VP and the lawmakers.
“This is one last act of high-level deceit by a desperate government that has suddenly woken up to the realization that the game is up in its bid to portray the VP in bad light and stop his presidential ambition,” AC said in a statement issued in Abuja Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammad.
“This government has now hit the lowest ebb in its long history of intricately-woven pack of lies, which it has been peddling to an unsuspecting public, just to stop one man and one man alone - Vice President Atiku Abubakar!” the party said.
AC challenged the federal government or any of its agents of deceit to produce any evidence, either in form of a letter or otherwise, confirming that the VP made such accusation to US lawmakers as alleged.
It said failure to produce such evidence should be taken by the citizenry as an indication of how low, petty and dangerous the PDP-led federal government has sunk in its continuous but ineffective efforts to demonize the VP.
“If the VP indeed wrote to the US lawmakers as alleged, such letter should not be difficult to produce as it is a public document,” AC said.
“If, on the other hand, he appeared before the lawmakers to make such a claim, the proceedings should be on tape and can be easily obtained by the government or any interested person,” it noted.
AC said the truth of the matter was that no such accusation was made by the VP against our lawmakers, whose steadfastness actually helped to truncate the evil third term plot that threatened to derail the country’s hard-earned democracy.
It said the VP held the lawmakers in high esteem for their diligence, vigilance and respect for the rule of law and the Constitution, without which Nigeria’s democracy would have unraveled.
“We appeal to our lawmakers to ignore this cheap attempt at blackmail, and to remain focused in their continuing efforts to save our democracy from a cabal of power-hungry liars and cheats, who will stop at nothing to bring the house down on themselves for their selfish ambitions,” AC said.