Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu on Sunday revealed that he gave the All Progressives Congress, APC, N5m in 2014.
DAILY POST reports that he made the disclosure at his Enugu residence where his constituents had converged begging him to return to the Senate in 2019.
The constituents, including the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said there was no alternative to Ekweremadu at the moment, who they said had so much impacted on their lives.
They presented the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, expression of interest and nomination form worth N3.m to the Senator. The form was purchased by the constituents.
Ekweremadu, while responding to the plea, said the beauty of democracy was allowing the opposition to thrive.
He said as an apostle of true democracy, he gave the APC N5m at its formative stage in 2014 when it was financial challenges in Enugu State.
He 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 form for him. As far as I am concerned, all power belongs to God.
“We should not try to reduce the political space. We must allow people to participate. You can disagree with people, but you must not try to harass them with security agencies and the rest. That is bringing us a lot of embarrassment in the international community”.
On the pleas by his people for him to return to the Senate in 2019, Ekwermadu said their visit came at a time he was still pondering his next move.
“A Few weeks ago, I reflected on my past engagements with the people of Enugu West and I was satisfied that, by the grace of God, we were able to make so many improvements in the lives of our people.
“I also tried to reflect on my present political trials, persecution and harassment, but I said it could only happen because God allowed it. I believe that God will take care of it and we will triumph.
“One option is to come back to you in Enugu and run my Foundation, which will give me opportunity to mentor young men and women in leadership. The second is probably to go to a university and take a fulltime academic job and also try to mentor young people in school.
“But my dilemma there is: what happens to all of you that have been my partners in the politics? I concluded that we would collectively decide the next move.
“Today, you have spoken, and since you are my employers, I have no choice than to humbly accept to run for the Senate again”, Ekweremadu added.
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