By Chioma Gabriel
Honourable Dave Salako was the Chairman, Federal House of Representatives Committee on Communications. In this encounter, he answers questions on how he lost out in the race for another term in the House of Representatives after serving two terms

. He also talks about the alleged N10 billion fraud against the Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole.
Excerpts.

What really happened with the Ikenne/Remo Federal Constituency in the past election?

It started with the factionalization of PDP in Ogun State. There was the OBJ group and the Gbenga Daniel group. I belong  to the OBJ group. The problem started about three years ago.

The PDP leadership did not do much about that until much later when we were asked to reconcile and share the party offices so that if someone from one faction becomes state chairman, the deputy could come from the other faction but things didn’t work out that way. So, we went and continued preparation for the elections. We prepared for primaries and held our primaries.

We were able to have a unified primary and this person that was approved by INEC as the PDP candidate from the constituency was in the Gbenga Daniel faction. He later resigned from the PDP and in the primary we conducted, I won. The primary was recorded on video tape and I can bring a copy of that tape.

Incidentally, at that time, we also went to court after the primary. My group and Gbenga Daniel group went to court seeking recognition. The other PDP aspirant, Tunji Olurin and my humble self were in court. But unfortunately, things didn’t work out as expected.

Salako

The court said it is only the PDP that could say no to one faction or the other. So, we started our campaign as the Gbenga Daniel group eventually defected to PPN. I started my campaign for the primary in my constituency in the race after being declared winner in  the primary. I was in the field one day campaigning when I was called and told that my name has been substituted by INEC with the name of Adebutu.

So, I had to go to INEC to find out what happened. I learnt from INEC that what happened was the truth. I wrote a petition to IN EC over the issue and they said they got a letter from the state branch of the party that I had withdrawn my candidature, that I  signed that I was no longer contesting. I requested for details of the letter purportedly written by me and it took another one week.

I found out that the letter was forged. The signature was not mine. I then wrote to INEC to state my position on the documents given to me. The handwriting was  not mine. Somebody tried to forge my signature. The handwriting of the letter of resignation was not mine. So, that was how the trouble started. It was a case of forgery and I wrote to the police and explained my position. I also wrote the EFCC. I have this nagging feeling that some staff of INEC compromised. I suspect that a huge sum of money must have exchanged hands.

The police eventually made some arrests and the people were charged to court. They were in the Police custody for about five days before they were granted bail but the man who bought my candidacy from Ogun PDP was said to be at large. The case has been adjourned two times. It is an open document in court now. So, the court will decide. I’m just being hopeful.

It was a pre-election matter. The candidate that allegedly stole your candidacy lost in the polls. So, what do you stand to gain?

I want to establish the truth that I am the candidate for Ikenne/Remo  Federal Constituency of the PDP in the House of Representatives elections. I believe that I could have won if I had contested. I have to prove the case of forgery because when the Police took my case up, they  watched the video recording of the PDP primary where I was declared the winner.

The people who claimed I did not contest primaries were in the video and presided over the primary. One of them was even the one to raise my hand as the winner after the counting of the votes. The police were shocked as  they pointed out the PDP chiefs one after the other. The people who wrote to INEC that I did not contest the primary were physically present when the police were watching the video.

So, it is now an open secret. Talking about it is not subjudice. The CP was shocked. The case has gone to forensic. The signatures were verified and adjudged as false. As a matter of fact, it turned out that the same handwriting was used to forge two other handwritings of other contestants who were alleged to also have withdrawn from the race. I will show you the letter allegedly written by me saying I have withdrawn from the race. I also have copies of other forged letters.

The forensic on the handwriting specimen was also repeated in Kaduna. It confirmed that the signature and the handwriting were forged. The fraudsters tried to convince the court with a forensic result done without my handwriting specimen.

I had to submit the specimen of my handwriting in the second test done.

It confirmed their forgery. And it was also discovered that two other letters said to be written by other politicians were forged by the same suspects. It was the handwriting that wrote my letter of resignation that wrote theirs. If you say, okay, the letter of withdrawal was in my handwriting, I didn’t write the letter of the other two and it was the same writing that wrote them. The forensic analysis exonerated me and clearly stated I was not the writer of the said withdrawal letter. But the harm has been done. I am currently representing Ikenne/Remo North Federal Constituency.

I could have won if I had contested. But I was cheated out of the race.
Attahiru Jega was acknowledged to be honest and humble and when you said INEC compromised…
There’s so much fraud being committed right under Attahiru Jega’s nose and he’s not doing anything about it. When he came to the House  plenary, my case was discussed with him one-on-one and he promised to look into the matter but he did not. He could have forgotten but he cannot say he didn’t know what his commissioners are doing.

The stories of INEC compromise during the elections have been published over and over again. So, if he is an honest man, those working under him definitely are not because it is easy to prove a case of compromise against INEC in my case.

The candidate who substituted your name lost. What is the essence of continuing with this case?

There are two cases here: one is a civil case which I am pursuing and the other is a criminal case which the police is investigating because like I said, I have a police report establishing forgery  of my handwriting and signature.

Your tenure has expired  in the National Assembly and Speaker Bankole is under fire by the EFCC over the N10 billion loan. What do you think would happen?

The N10 billion loan was taken as a back-up for our salaries while we were awaiting the signing of the budget and you shouldn’t blame Bankole for that. And I want us to believe that Bankole is innocent until proven otherwise.  I want you to understand that Bankole  did not act alone in borrowing the money. All of us knew about that . So, it’s not really like , hey, Bankole has done it like the others before him.

With what you said about purchasing of candidacy by some politicians, what does that say of internal democracy within political parties?

There is nothing like internal democracy within political parties. There is  no internal democracy in  PDP or any party and until we get all these issues rectified, we will not fully reap the dividends of democracy.