Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday denied the claims that he started massive vote-buying in the country.
The Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, was quoted that the unfortunate trend of vote buying started under former President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
A statement by Ikechukwu Eze, who is the Media Adviser to Jonathan, entitled “Oshiomhole: The burden of blame game and tumultuous leadership”, said that the allegations were false and misleading.
He said ‘Our attention has been drawn to a media report in which the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Adams Oshiomhole was alleged to have claimed that Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, started vote buying in Nigeria.
“While featuring on a Channels Television programme, Roadmap, Oshiomhole was quoted to have said the following: “President Jonathan started this massive vote buying in Nigeria and the Media must play back and do proper interview and proper investigation to discover the origin of vote buying.”
“We really do not know the real reason for this misleading falsehood, at this point in time. However, we can only guess that Mr. Oshiomhole who is currently operating under tremendous stress in the bid to steady the already floundering ship of his administration as the new leader of his party, may have got himself entangled in a voyage of tactless desperation.
“His recent flip flops where he praised Governor Samuel Ortom and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso one day only to denounce them the very next day, is enough evidence of his fragile psychological state.
“Not only is he content on squabbling with members of the opposition, we note the self-destructive tendencies of Oshiomhole who is locked in a feud with members of his own party including the minister of labour, Chris Ngige, and a host of APC Governors. It appears that Mr. Oshiomhole’s psychological strain may have reached boiling point.
“On the vexatious issue of ‘vote-buying’, which has unfortunately found its way into our election lexicon, this is what we know: It is obvious that the shameful development in our democratic experience became very glaring during the 2016 gubernatorial elections in Edo State; an exercise that took place more than one year after President Jonathan had left office.
“It is therefore disingenuous for any politician or group to link the former President with the anomaly, no matter how they want to stretch the now-failing blame game.” he said
He said that the issue of vote buying didn’t come up in the assessment of elections while Jonathan was in Office as President between 2010 and 2015.
