Deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has disclosed that he gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) N5 million to help it stabilize in 2014.
Speaking on Sunday in Enugu, the DSP said he donated the money because the minister of labour and productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, asked him for the “help”.
He noted that if the PDP and former President Goodluck Jonathan had been repressive the APC would not have emerged victorious in 2015.
Ekweremadu said: “The beauty of democracy is the enlargement of the political space in which everybody is free to participate, bring and exchange ideas, and disagree in order to agree. But we are not seeing that today.
“I will tell you something that is going to shock you. In 2014 when APC started, they wanted to register members in Enugu state. Senator Chris Ngige called me and said they were having problem registering members in Enugu State, and asked if I help them. I was the deputy president of the Senate in the PDP, but I gave them N5 million. Ngige is still my witness.
“During that 2015 election, one lady came to me and said she wanted to run against me on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and she needed my support. I said okay, I will start by paying for your nomination form because I believe every party must be given a chance. She lost the election, but I later helped to secure a political position for her.
“Just yesterday, I also got a call from a man who introduced himself as an engineer from Achi, but lives in Jigawa. He later came with his family to tell me that he wanted to run for the Senate in Enugu west. I congratulated him and offered to help purchase his nomination form. But he told me he had already bought his form. He was surprised when I offered to buy a form for him. As far as I am concerned, all power belongs to God.”