Name parties demanding money to endorse Buhari, CPPP tells Oshiomhole, APC

The Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (CPPP) has challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to mention names of political groups that asked the ruling party for gratification before supporting the re-election of President Buhari. Oshiomhole had said on Wednesday that some political parties approached the APC for money to endorse the President in his second term bid during a courtesy visit to the National Working Committee of the APC by the International Republican Institute (IRI), referring to the smaller political parties as ‘democratic merchants’. In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday and signed by the Convener and Chairman of the Coalition, Mallam Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, described Oshiomhole’s allegations as “too general and grossly unfair”. Mallam Bashir said: “This allegations is “too general and grossly unfair to those parties that have continued to support the President out of sheer patriotism, against all odds and in spite of all the challenges and difficulties, without any financial reward or incentive. “By his failure to mention names, the APC National Chairman’s allegations creates the unfortunate impression that those parties that support President Muhammadu Buhari are paid for their support and are only in it for selfish and pecuniary reasons. This cannot be further from the truth”. “While we respect and do not wish to join issues with the APC National Chairman on this matter, we are constrained to make it clear that political parties in the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties are not in the category of parties described in his allegation. His generalised allegation and his failure to name names in such a very grave and potentially criminal matter, has created a huge reputational risk for parties in the Coalition and their leaders. “We owe it a duty to ourselves to challenge Mr. Oshiomhole to name the specific parties that demanded money to support the President so we are not lumped, in the eyes of the public, in the category of those parties. We deserve to know if any of our members had demanded money from anybody so we can take appropriate action against such member or members”. “For the avoidance of doubt”, the statement continued, “the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties supported Muhammadu Buhari as the candidate of All Progressives Congress in the 2015 presidential election, before he became President. Even as sitting President, President Muhammadu Buhari had publicly made it clear, he and his government do not have money to give anybody in exchange for support. “Our Coalition supported and continue to support the President pro bono, without any financial incentive or reward of any kind from any quarters. We support him purely because we believe in his vision for Nigeria and we are glad he had acknowledged our selfless support and service on several occasions. ”We campaigned as hard as anybody to enable him win the election, our members granted press conferences, took newspaper advertorials, travelled the length and breadth of Nigeria at their own expense and where needed, provided his campaign with polling agents. We protected his mandate at the polling units and when his detractors wanted to stop Independent National Electoral Commission from declaring him as winner of the election. We do not belong in the category of, nor deserve to be described as ‘democratic merchants’. We know where to go if we were looking money. “The Coalition of Progressive Political Parties is the only group of political parties that support President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming election. Majority of Nigeria’s political parties are in another coalition. Mr. Oshiomhole should be careful not to alienate genuine supporters of the President through false and unfounded allegations. He should keep union-style agitation away from partisan politics and begin to learn the art of consensus-building.” By Tom Okpe, Abuja