By Simon EBEGBULEM, Benin
FORMER chief whip of the Senate, Senator Rowland Owie, yesterday, reacted to the allegation by the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, that National Assembly members are corrupt, saying that the allegation was laughable because “Obasanjo instituted corruption in the country”.

He alleged that “Obasanjo corrupted  the National Assembly in 1999, when he compromised lawmakers to install the late Evan Ewerem as senate president against the preferred candidate of the senators, which was Senator Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory.

According to him, “this is the problem with this nation, for a man like Obasanjo ordinarily nobody should respond to what he says.

“We were in the senate and we know what happened, his comment is actually unfortunate and that it is being made at a time when one of those senators that respects him so much, that has a soft spot for Obasanjo in the person of Senator David Mark is steering the National Assembly.

“Senator David Mark, Ibrahim Babangida and Alhaji Shehu Shagari were the ones that saved Obasanjo from being impeached, today, Obasanjo would have been history, the impeachment was settled so if he can make such statement when people like David Mark is  at the helm of affairs, it shows that he has no conscience. How can the smoke call the kettle black?  Obasanjo introduced corruption  in 1999 into the National Assembly when he was calling senators into the villa to appeal to us to vote Ewerem instead of Chuba Okadigbo, it was the beginning of Ghana-Must-Go”.

He also accused the former president of alleged involvement in anti-party activities when 56 out of the 65 PDP senators wanted Okadigbo because he said he wanted a yes-man and compromised the then APP and AD senators in the house to have his way.

“ I refused to attend the chapel in Aso villa throughout his time in the presidency because  when he was dancing at the opening ceremony of Apo Mansion with Okadigbo’s wife, Margree, his cohort, his agent in the National Assembly were sharing Ghana-Must-Go a few house from the mansion to impeach Chuba Okadigbo the following day.

That is why throughout my stay in the senate, I never worshiped in that Aso Villa Chapel.

He also challenged Obasanjo to disclose the source of his wealth even when he was broke after he was released from prison in 1998. “It is sad that in Nigerian, we forget too soon, what did he do with the legislators from Bayelsa? What did he do when he took them to Lagos to impeach a governor outside his area of jurisdiction. What did he do in Plateau when Dariye was impeached, what did he use, was it cowry, was it water from the river?

“How can he talk about corruption in Nigeria, what he did do with the aborted Third Term when banks in Abuja were opening on Saturdays and Sundays?” Obasanjo should stop deceiving himself and stay in his Otta farm” he asserted.