The APC national chairman was recently quoted to have said when the International Republican Institute, IRI, paid a courtesy visit to the National Working Committee of the APC that smaller political parties were demanding money to endorse President Buhari’s re-election bid next year.
Oshiomhole was also said to have described the small political parties as ‘democratic merchants’.
But the Convener and Chairman of COP3, Mallam Bashir Ibrahim, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, challenged the APC chairman to name the political parties that demanded money to endorse Buhari.
The coalition described Oshiomhole’s allegations as “too general and grossly unfair to those parties that have continued to support the President out of sheer patriotism, against all odds and despite all the challenges and difficulties, without any financial reward or incentive.
“By his failure to mention names, the APC national chairman’s allegations create the unfortunate impression that those parties that support Buhari are paid for their support and are only in it for 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 is not in the category of parties described in his allegation. His generalized 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 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 Coalition of Progressive Political Parties supported Buhari as the candidate of APC in the 2015 presidential election, before he became President. Even as sitting President, 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 continues 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 would 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, INEC, 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 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.”
“We insist that Oshiomhole names the political parties that demanded money to endorse President Buhari for his re-election or toe the path of honour by tendering unreserved public apology to the selfless political parties that have supported President Buhari since 2015 unconditionally.”
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