Barely four days to the start of hearing on the appeal against the Imo state Governor’s election, speculations are rife that some top-notch officials of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Imo state, had made unsuccessful attempts to bribe members of the state executive of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to withdraw the appeal lodged against the ruling of the governorship elections tribunal.
APGA top brass in the state allegedly met a brick wall, even after they had concluded a pact with four members of the PDP state executive penultimate Friday, to withdraw the case pending at the Appeal Court.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that the four members of the state executive of the PDP involved in the deal had agreed to accept a whooping bribe? of N950 million (nine hundred and fifty million naira) from officials of APGA, and thereafter write the Appeal Court panel handling the case to terminate the case on the basis that? majority of Imo electorate would want Governor Rochas Okorocha, of APGA who was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after the May 6, 2011 supplementary election, to continue in office.
It was further gathered that the bubble burst when another top official of the PDP in the state who was informed about the deal, described the impending transaction as a betrayal of trust, and a contravention of a section of the party’s constitution which provides that before such action is taken, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party must be involved.
And apparently anxious to get concretize the deal, the PDP top officials said to be involved in the transaction, allegedly approached some national officials of the party in Abuja, to secure their approval for the withdrawal of the case against Governor Okorocha.
It was gathered that before such approval could be given, another top official of PDP in Imo state, informed the immediate past governor of the state, Ikedi Ohakim, about the plot by some members of the state executive of the party to withdraw the case pending at the Court of Appeal.?
The former governor, who lost to Okorocha, reportedly hatched a plot with some officials of the party’s headquarters in Abuja, to encourage the party’s executive in Imo state to collect the money with a view to catching them red-handed.
However, the plot reportedly couldn’t sail through following the leakage of the plan to the party’s officials in Imo state who were at the centre of the bribe scandal.