Bribe-for-vote: Lawmakers Reply APC Govs, Deny Offering Bribe for Senate Presidency, Speakership

Udora Orizu in Abuja

Some members of the House of Representatives have denied the allegation by the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) that two candidates seeking to become Senate President and Speaker are offering to bribe their fellow lawmakers with as much as $1 million each to get elected.
Governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had claimed in a memo to the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, that two aspirants to the positions were offering a bribe.

Premium Times reported that PGF had in the memo called for the intervention of  Tinubu on the zoning of the principal offices of the federal parliament. The governors also recommended a zoning formula for the offices.
However, two members of the House of Representatives Akin Alabi (APC – Oyo) and Rolland Igbakpa (PDP- Delta) denied the allegation, noting that none of the lawmakers has that type of money.

Alabi and Igbakpa stated this on Wednesday while appearing on PT Twitter Space. The space titled: How should 10th National Assembly Leadership be zoned?
Alabi, who represents the Egbeda/Ona-Ara federal constituency of Oyo State, who said lobbying and campaigning by different candidates were ongoing in the two chambers, however, said no one has offered any lawmaker money to vote in any particular direction.

He recalled that in 2019, lawmakers did not only vote for the current Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, they spent their money to assist with logistics.
“In 2019, we did not collect N1 to go into that hall (Chamber) and vote Femi Gbajabiamila, and he had about 200 plus votes,” he said.
He added that “I have been in various caucuses—South-west meeting, new members caucus, and minority caucus. We have held meetings about our joint task that I talked about earlier and with the number of meetings we have held, I have not seen anything like that. It must be a lie, at least for the House of Representatives.”

But Alabi conceded that leadership election is expensive, particularly in terms of logistics. He said aspirants for the position have to move around the country to visit governors.
“They travelled round, we talked about seeing governors. You are not going to wait till the governors come down to Abuja. You need them to talk to the members in their states,” he said.

Alabi disclosed that aspirants sometimes have to hire private jets in making these rounds.
“You know how much it costs to hire a private jet? It is about $10,000 per hour. Imagine doing that consistently,” he said.
Igbakpa, on his part, denied the governors’ claim, adding that they may have exaggerated the matter.
“It is quite expensive. But nobody is going to dole out that kind of money. Are you telling me somebody is going to bring out $360 million? Convert that to Naira. Where is the person getting the money from?” he stated.

He also stated that campaigning for the leadership of the National Assembly is expensive.
“It is quite expensive. When we talk about elections, it is not the money you give to an individual—logistics, people have to fly from one part of the country to another. They have to reach out to the people. Most times—where I come from in Delta State, you cannot visit anybody that you are contesting without a bottle of wine,” he said.