***Allegations baseless, reckless- Speaker
The Delta state House of Assembly is currently enmeshed in fresh bribe allegations running into about N115 million naira, Bigpenreports has learnt.
Dependable sources alleged that the House is currently engrossed with allegations to bribe members of the House of Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Asaba, the state capital.
The source revealed that 23 PDP members in the Delta State House of Assembly are fingered in the bribe allegation which was first blown up by an opposition members of the House as well as the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain who said petition have been sent to Department of State Services, (DSS), to investigate the matter.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain who preferred anonymity claimed that 23 PDP members in the Delta State House of Assembly whose election is currently been challenged at the tribunal had contributed N5million each with which they tend to compromise the members of tribunal particularly panel 2 and 3 to get favorable judgment.
The source alleged that the bribe money is allegedly rooted through a member of the House representing Oshimili North Constituency, Pat Ajudua who is alleged to be a close ally of one of the tribunal judges.
Two sources who are of the SDP and LP party alleged that a principle officer of the House had convinced Ajudua after they got the nod of the House Speaker, Monday Igbuya to compromise the tribunal judges in a desperare bid to dismiss the cases against them.
“The principle officer, the woman also has a very bad case, and so does many PDP members in the House of Assembly, and for it not to appear as if is one man thing, they convinced other members to buy into the idea of using female lawmaker contact to get the judges to mortgage justice.”
“As part of their strategies, cases affecting the PDP principle officers will not be determined until the 180days period allowed by the electoral act elapses, and one of those to benefit from this move is the House Speaker.”
The source however said that petitions would be sent to Department of State Services, (DSS), to investigate the allegation, as well as National Judicial Commission (NJC) and other relevant agency to take note and act accordingly.
Meanwhile, a PDP lawmaker who confirmed the allegations however denied been involved, but confirm that a PDP member in the House actually approached him to buy into the scam in order for him to get victory at the tribunal.
The lawmaker however added that since he was very confident that he won his election fair and square, he doesn’t need to compromise justice.
In a swift reaction however, the Chief Press Secretary to the Delta State House of Assembly Speaker, Mr. Henry Ebireri, in a statement described as wicked, baseless and reckless the allegation that 23 PDP members in House contributed a sum of N5million each with which to compromise the panel of judges and receive a favorable judgment against opposition petitioners.
Ebireri also described the allegation that the speaker approached a lawmaker to bring N5million to settle the panel of judges at the House of Assembly tribunal to get justice as political fabrication aimed at undermining the speaker’s integrity.
“The Delta State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Monday Igbuya, is an honest and highly effective speaker. He has built a reputation anchored on integrity over the years,” he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment