I Took Igboho To Collect Bribe From Tinubu – Senator Ojudu

Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has revealed that he once to took Sunday Igboho to receive bribe from Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Ojudu made the revelation in a post he made on his Facebook page on Monday. According to the presidential aide, he was assigned to go and look for Igboho, who was then a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) thug, and facilitate a meeting between him and Tinubu.

This happened in the build-up to the court-ordered re-run of the 2009 Ekiti State governorship election. “The PDP ruling at the Federal level did not want to lose Ekiti while the opposition- the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria- ACN led and financed by Bola Ahmed Tinubu wanted to take Ekiti by all means.

A few days to the election,we got an intelligence report that the PDP big wigs had perfected a plan to unleash thugs recruited from across Yoruba land on Ekiti. The plan was to kill and maim as many as possible, snatch ballot boxes and win by any means possible.

“Tinubu summoned me to Lagos and said Femi, ‘I have conducted a scientific opinion poll. You people can win this election. The only snag however is they are deploying state security as well as thugs against you. State security men we can handle ( and he did creatively handled them ) but how do you handle thugs?’

“I then suggested we dissuade them by engagement and inducements. After all they are in the business only for the money and not for ideological reasons.

“We reached out to both Ade Basket in Akure and Fada Geri in Ondo. Both were dreaded in political circles. We had a series of meetings with them and were able to squeeze an agreement with them that they will not make themselves available to PDP for hire. I got them to even sign documents for me that they were going to stay off Ekiti elections.

“The biggest headache for us then was Sunday Igboho who we learnt has been hired and paid by a Senator from Osun to come and cause mayhem in Ekiti. Tinubu instructed we must get him at all cost,” wrote Ojudu.

Two days to the election, he wrote, he was able to take Igboho to Tinubu, who told the thug that he was aware of his reputation and needed him to stay off the election.

Ojudu quoted Igboho as telling Tinubu: “I have heard you and I am pleased with what you have said. Whatever you want me to do I will do even though I have collected money from the other side.”

Ojudu then claimed that Tinubu beckoned to him to come to his hotel room and after, handed an unspecified amount of money to Igboho for agreeing to stay off the election and the agitator left smiling.

The election was eventually won by ACN’s Kayode Fayemi, who defeated Segun Oni of the PDP.