The Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, has said that a former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, mounted pressure on the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party to annul the primaries that produced him as the candidate of the party for Kogi Central Senatorial candidate in January, 2011.
The senator stated this at a conference jointly organised by him and Senator Adeyemi Smart from Kogi West Senatorial District to debunk the claim by Idris that he helped members of the from the state to win their elections.
A statement signed by Abatemi-Usman’s Media Assistant, Michael Jegede, quoted the senator as saying: “We are cultured people.
“We are responsible people and by virtue of the office we occupy, we are distinguished gentlemen.
“We will not want to join issues with such a person (Idris).
“However, if we let this go without putting the record straight, then it will be assumed that what he has said about us is true.
“I sit before you to say very clearly that it was just last month that the Supreme Court finally discharged with the last of the cases against me, instituted by Ibrahim Idris through his sponsored challenger of mine.
“I have been in court since January 2011 after I won the PDP primaries.
“Ibrahim Idris as the Governor of Kogi State came to the National Secretariat and caused that an election, widely acclaimed by all and sundry to be transparent, free and fair, devoid of any form of violence, be cancelled.
“He pressured the National Working Committee to cancel my election alongside the primaries of Kogi West and Kogi East.”
Abatemi-Usman wondered how a man who was busy giving the resources of the government to his opponent, to challenge his victory up to the Supreme Court, would come out to say he helped him to get to the National Assembly.
He added: “My victory is of God.
“The good people of Kogi Central Senatorial District willingly gave me their mandate, which was duly affirmed in the law court despite Idris effort to upturn the will of the people.”