Bribery allegation against us baseless, diversionary, says Elumelu

Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Minority Leader, House of Representatives.

The Minority Leader of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu has dismissed the bribery allegation leveled against him and other members of the Minority Leadership of the House of Representatives by a group which calls itself the PDP Youths Congress, PDPYC.

The PDPYC in a recent statement published by some media outfits, had alleged that Hon. Elumelu and his colleagues in the minority leadership of the House were in the process of hatching a plot to compromise some members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) with millions of naira, to avert what the group insinuated was the imminent expulsion of himself and the other members of the minority leadership from the party.

But in a statement from the office of the Minority Leader, House of Representatives, National Assembly Complex, Abuja, on Friday, 18th October, 2019, Hon. Elumelu debunked the allegations of bribery and clandestine meetings, describing them as a contrived, baseless, unfounded, wicked and diversionary fabrication from enemies of the PDP, especially at this time when the PDP is waxing even stronger and becoming more formidable in the political space.

 “Our leaders in the National Working Committee, NWC, of our great Party, PDP, are highly respected, principled men and women whose priorities for now, working with other well meaning members of the Party are on positioning our party as a vibrant and viable political alternative in the country and entrenching a better Nigeria for our teeming masses.

 “The focus of our respected leaders right now is not the frivolities being insinuated by this so called group; our focus as a party under the leadership of our dynamic national Chairman, is our appeal at the Supreme Court and we are not relenting about it,” Elumelu stated.

Continuing the Minority Leader said, “For now, as an appendage of the PDP, we are working harmoniously with the leadership of our great party and the various organs, including our leaders in the NWC and we will continue to work with them because it is incumbent on us to do so as loyal members of our party.

“We are not aware of any organ of our great party mooting the thoughts of expelling the very loyal and committed members of our party that are in the minority leadership of the House of Representatives and it is absolutely preposterous for anyone to even talk of us gathering in a secret location, with a view to compromising very senior and highly respected leaders of our great party.

“So if we are not aware of our alleged 'imminent expulsion' from our party by the NWC, on what basis then are we now purportedly gathering to plot on how to raise millions of Naira to compromise them? By the way who do you compromise amongst these elderly and revered leaders of our party?

"I make bold to say that the members of our great Party’s NWC are men and women of impeccable character who cannot be compromised. The allegations are indeed laughable, demeaning, baseless and obviously crafted with the intent to cause disharmony and friction within our party”.

He further revealed that the ultimate goal and focus of the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives at the moment is to join forces with other members of the House to come up with a working budget that will meet the yearnings and aspiration of Nigerians, saying that they will not allow diversionary elements who he noted to be enemies of the party, to distract them from this core duty that they were elected to perform for the benefit of the people who elected them.

 “Our gathering since the 2020 proposed budget was presented to the Joint sitting of the two chambers, by Mr President, was purely for the betterment of the country in line with our responsibility to the budget.

"We owe it as a sacred duty to the whole country, to critically and expeditiously appraise the budget, and for that we are very much busy now. We really have no time for frivolities like holding clandestine meetings in secret locations and the leaders of our great party are fully aware of this, because we are also working with them”, he said.

The Federal Legislator also added that the only worry of the minority caucus of the House of Representatives is the rationale behind the economic wisdom of appropriating whooping 2.4 trillion naira for servicing the country's huge debt, which, he said, is far more than the capital vote of 2.1trillion naira, even as he added that they were also against the over taxing of Nigerians, noting that the reduction in inflationary rates, according to the budget, has sadly not been reflected in the lives of ordinary citizens.