Yakubu Dogara, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, has claimed that Bala Mohammed, the governor of Bauchi State, knelt before FCT Minister Nyesom Wike in 2018 in order to obtain funds to support his campaign for governor.
Dogara disclosed that Wike, the former governor of Rivers, ordered Chief Dan Osi Orbih, a PDP chieftain, to hand Mohammed the party’s ticket for governor with his interventions.
Dogara said in a statement on Tuesday that he would be a coward, saying, “as someone who knows so much because I was the provocateur of the events between the two that I will speak to, I consider my silence not just cowardice but complicity.”
“I need to remind Governor Bala Mohammed that in the 2018 PDP gubernatorial primaries, when we weren’t entirely sure he would win because Senate Abdul Ningi, his then-major opponent, was the one who formed the State party structure and had a bosom friend as Party chairman, we turned to Wike for help,” he said.”
“Without necessarily telling Wike that it was Bala Mohammed we wanted delivered, I had contacted him to beg him to assist us in Bauchi. “Are you sure you are in control of the process 100%?” he asked me in response. I told him I wasn’t sure, and he replied, “Leave it to me; I’ll help you figure it out.”
“In order to accomplish this, Wike first appointed Chief Dan Osi Orbih, his close friend and ally, as the Chairman of the Panel for the primaries and instructed me to speak with Chief Dan about anything I wanted.
We started chatting, and we had to get Chief Dan to Bauchi for the job since he was in Benin City on the eve of the primaries. “My brother, I have told you not to bother about this,” was Wike’s response when I turned to him once more. Inform Chief Dan that I would be meeting him in Port Harcourt.
I did exactly that, and to my amazement, Wike supplied the private plane that transported Chief Dan to and from Bauchi for the task.
“I can state unequivocally that Wike covered all of the exercise’s costs. Therefore, it’s remarkable that Wike, a so-called transactional character, made no demands of him in exchange for his support,” he remarked.
According to Dogara, “we were rudely awoken to the reality that Bala Mohammed had no money for his own campaigns let alone for other candidates of the party” after Mohammed emerged as the party’s flag bearer and pledged to support other party candidates if he won the ticket.
“At first, I thought it was a humorous prank, but as time passed, I realized to my complete confusion that it was true. As it happened, Bala Mohammed had misled us regarding is financial capacity.”
In summary, we spent the night at the Government residence, and the next morning, Wike called to instruct that I receive his financial aid so that I can give it to Bala.
Your Excellency, I advised calling him so he could pick up the help on his own and avoid giving the impression that you were still upset with him. “I sent for Bala, and when he arrived, Wike’s assistant gave him the box, which he accepted while practically kissing the floor.
Thus, Wike provided us with the vitality we required to launch Bala’s efforts. I’ll remind Bala if he has forgotten how much we had left that day.
“Wike didn’t stop there, he gave us a private jet to ferry us back to Abuja. And I must add that was not the only time Wike helped Bala with resources and logistics.”
“What is baffling is that the so-called transactional Wike did not demand for anything in return nor place any condition for all that he did. Believe me this is not the end of the story but let’s leave it here.”In this article