The All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator recently sacked by the Appeal Court, Clifford Elisha Abbo, has been slammed for falsely accusing the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, of masterminding his sack from the Senate.
LEADERSHIP reports that the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Tuesday, sacked Senator Abbo as lawmaker representing Adamawa North Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
But, while speaking to journalists after the court ruling, Abbo had claimed Akpabio targeted him and others for opposing his emergence as head of the National Assembly.
But afterwards, Abbo, who featured on AriseNews Channel on Wednesday night, recanted, saying: “I have to say with all sense of humility and responsibility that the press release we rendered yesterday (Tuesday) was premature and based on the available information at our disposal.”
Tackling Abbo for his unfounded allegation, a leading civil society organisation, Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria (CNPDN), in a press statement, frowned at the former lawmaker’s action.
General Secretary of CNPDN, Francis Okereke Wainwei, who signed the statement, wondered why Abbo will hurriedly go to the press to tarnish the image of Akpabio and suddenly make a U-turn to apologise.
Wainwei said: “Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria has followed with keen interest the unfortunate development that trailed the decision of the Court of Appeal which removed Sen. Ishaku Cliff Abbo of APC and declared Amos Yohanna of PDP as the winner of the 2023 Adamawa North Senatorial elections.
“Shortly after the judgement, Abbo was in the media where he arbitrarily alleged that the President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator Godswil Akpabio has a hand in his oust. But in a dramatic turn of events, the same Abbo came back on a National TV to apologize to the President of the Senate for smearing his name with false allegations and for misinforming Nigerians.
“For a lawmaker who has been in the Senate since 2019: a man who should know and be guided by the workings and independence of the Judiciary, a man who benefited from same judiciary in the past when he contested the same seat under PDP against Senator Binta Garba who accused him of manipulating results yet the court upheld his elections. It is expected that this man, though not an experienced politician doesn’t need to be a fast learner to learn enough in his last 4 years at the Senate.
“Rushing to the Media to smear the good name of Akpabio instead of addressing your problem from where it came from is condemnable. Instead of addressing your supporters and the people of Adamawa North that accused you of shortchanging them in the elections thereby seeking legal redress even before the inauguration of the 10th Senate is the highest form if desperation we have seen from a politician for years.
“While we condemn this act of desperation, we will not shy away from commending Abbo for coming forward to inform Nigerians that the alleged involvement of the Senate President in his predicament is nothing but a fabricated story concocted by him to lick his wounds after loosing his seat at the appellate court.
“Similarly, Abbo’s grandstanding did not entirely come to us as a surprise. After loosing a pre~election matter in a trial Court, It was same Abbo that used his verified media handle and described the judgement as a CASH AND CARRY judgement only to come back in an hour to delete the post after his lawyers have cautioned him on the dangers to smearing the good name of my Lords.
“Looking at the man Abbo, we understand that the Senate has done remarkably well in refining him to fit into the society. With scandals that marred his stay in the Senate, even a novice in politics should tell you the people of Adamawa North will not be proud of such a person.
“Citizens Network for Peace and Development in Nigeria therefore called on Abbo and his likes to always be ready to prove beyond any reasonable doubt any allegation before coming public as going forward we will not allow our leaders to be dragged into local political issues they know nothing about.”
