The controversy trailing the
invitation of the wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday took another
dimension as the Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
distanced itself from the petition,
arguing that the signatures of its members were forged.
According to the Kwara State
chapter of the PDP and its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Olawoye, whose
imprints the controversial petition to the EFCC bore as the authors, monday
dissociated themselves from it.
In a chat with journalists,
Olawoye said neither him nor PDP had anything to do with the petition accusing
Toyin of money laundering as the first lady of Kwara State.
He added that his signature on
the petition was forged, while the authorship credited to PDP was purely an
impersonation.
Olawoye explained that PDP in the
state had called an emergency meeting to discuss the forgery and fashion ways
out, on how to redress the situation.
The party spokesperson stated that
it was high time the party tamed the monster of forgery and impersonation that
certain people are always dragging it into, in the politics of the state,
adding that the current situation was the second time such would be rearing its
head.
Senator Joseph Waku had alleged
that former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, of being behind the petition,
stating that, “I also discovered from my findings in EFCC that the so-called
petition against Mrs Saraki was personally given to Lamorde by Tinubu under the
guise that he was submitting the petition on behalf of the APC leadership to
punish Saraki for working against the party’s leadership on the choice of
National Assembly leaders.”
But speaking to journalists,
Olawoye said: “I have nothing to do with the petition. You know over time, I
have built myself certain level of reputation because I am almost 30 years in
the business of politicking. They just wanted to use a credible name, that is
the truth and nothing but the truth. What happened is that there are some
people in the corner of their room who wrote the petition and put my name on it
and the media bought it.
“There was never any time as the
publicity secretary of the party that I endorsed or authorised that any
petition should be sent to EFCC. That was not the first time they would write,
there was a time they wrote that our party and particularly me as the
spokesperson wrote that the governor of Kwara State used only N1.5 billion of
the package from the fedearal government for salaries and carted away about N2
billion.
“Then I decided to allow sleeping
dog lie but now that they are doing it again, it is time for me to react. Media
managers should try to authenticate sources of information and clear with such
sources before using such information. When names are mentioned, media houses
should verify with such persons to get to the heart of the matter truthfully.
“I am saying emphatically that
PDP and I have nothing to do with this petition. There could be people with
scores to settle with the senate president or his family and writing in a
corner against them, but for us in PDP in Kwara, we consider as golden, politics
without bitterness and we believe that there is no permanent enemy in politics.
Olawoye said: “Even in Nigerian
politics, you can see that there is no permanent enemy again. When it is time
for us to go out as a credible opposition to this government, we would come
out. When the government is taking anti-developmental steps, we would come out
against them but we won’t malign anyone’s character and we won’t allow anyone
to use our names to damage anyone. When you have the courage to write such
petition, you should have the bravery and audacity to stand by it.
“This morning the caucus of the
party is meeting to fish out the writer and decide what to do about him.”
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