Mr. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, the Chairman of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) Panel sent to monitor the party’s primaries in Kaduna State has accused Senator Shehu Sani (APC – Kaduna Central) of attempting to bride the panel with N10 million to get confirmation of his contentious automatic ticket.
Iduoriyekemwen made this known in a chat with newsmen, saying that the senator offered the bride through a member of the panel during the just-concluded primaries in the state.
He said, “The only person in Kaduna State who offered me money was Senator Shehu Sani, through one of my committee members who was told to inform me that N10m gift was set aside for the committee chairman. I said we didn’t need the money. I asked them what the money was for. Even after the primaries, before the announcement of results, Senator Shehu and his men put pressure on us to come and take the money. He called me several times, but we made it clear to him that we don’t need cash inducement at all.
“He (Senator Sani) tried to convince me that he was the sole candidate and that was why I must accept the money. I told him point blank that I was in Kaduna on assignment for the National Working Committee, with a brief to do free and fair primary elections for duly-cleared candidates.”
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But in a swift reaction, the senator described Iduoriyekemwen’s claims as a “lie” and an attempt to tarnish his image.
Speaking in a statement signed by his political adviser, Suleiman Ahmed, Sani said, “The attention of the distinguished Senator Shehu Sani has been drawn to a fresh regime of lies disseminated and peddled by the APC Kaduna Central primary panel chair as supported by elements of the Kaduna State Government that distinguished Senator Shehu Sani had, through a proxy, offered to “Bribe” the chair of the electoral panel with the sum of N10m which he “rejected.” That is nothing but a condensed lies and outright falsehood.
“The distinguished Senator never delegated anyone to act on his behalf as far as the mischievous allegations are concerned.
“The distinguished senator had made it publicly known before the illegal primaries that he would not partake in an exercise that clearly violated the rules of the party and a court order obtained by the Governor’s candidate Uba Sani.
“The APC primary election committee was hosted and monopolized by the state governor’s aide in a hotel. It’s inconceivable that the senator will contemplate engaging in such an unwholesome and immoral act.
“The position of the distinguished senator remains that the so called primaries were illegal and nothing but a futile premeditated exercise aimed at producing Uba Sani as the party’s candidate.
“The said ‘bribe’ is an afterthought and nothing but a work of fiction by a panel that did the bidding of Uba Sani and his cohorts. Distinguished Senator Shehu Sani remains the only candidate cleared to contest the Kaduna central APC.”