TOM IKIMI WAS A MOLE PLANTED BY THE PDP - TINUBU SPEAKS

A former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday responded to the allegations levelled against him by a former leader of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Tom Ikimi; describing Ikimi as a liar.

Tinubu said in a statement he personally signed that Ikimi, who recently left the party, was a mole for the Peoples Democratic Party.

The former governor said the APC was better off without Ikimi, who is a former chairman of the defunct National Republican Convention.

Ikimi had in a statement last week accused Tinubu of being a dictator in the APC. He further alleged that on the eve of the party’s national convention in June, Tinubu had a meeting with the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, over an oil deal.

Ikimi, who was aspiring to become the chairman of the APC, also accused Tinubu of conniving with the PDP leadership to double-cross a former Presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, in 2011 by urging party leaders to work for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Tinubu, however said, “I ordinarily would not have responded to Ikimi’s lengthy chronicle of falsehoods, cheap blackmail and abuse. My only reason for this response is that I know Ikimi’s style. He subscribes to the view that no matter how unbelievable a lie may sound, if you brazenly assert it and repeat it often enough, you may persuade many that it is, in fact, true. I have seen Ikimi perpetrate this deviousness in his years in public life.

“Regarding the nonsense about selling out on Ribadu. I think common sense should dictate that if ever such a deal were reached, we would have had to inform our members in all the states. How could that have been done secretly? How do you tell hundreds of thousands of people not to vote for your own party without it becoming public knowledge?

“Ikimi was never sincerely committed to the party. He was always playing out a PDP script. He only wanted the chairmanship of the party as a bargaining chip for negotiations with his benefactors.

“His defection purportedly on account of the loss of the chairmanship of the party is a mere subterfuge, once his ploy failed, he had no other objective within the party and I knew he would go back to his sponsors. He is back in the company he deserves. And the APC is better for it.”

He said as the chairman of the NRC during the June 12, 1993 presidential elections, Ikimi connived with the military authorities to steal the mandate of MKO Abiola, who was adjudged the winner of the election.

The ex-governor said despite Ikimi’s bad history, the party allowed him to remain in its fold because the party hoped that he would change his ways.

Tinubu said he did not impose Chief John Oyegun as the chairman of the party but noted that he could not have supported Ikimi’s aspiration because he (Ikimi) was not competent to lead the party.

Ikimi refused to respond to the fresh allegations on Tuesday when one of our correspondents called him on the telephone.

Punch....