Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara has reacted to a statement credited to Senator Peter Nwaoboshi that former governor of Delta state, James Ibori contributed to his emergence as Speaker saying he has no relationship at all with the former governor.
Nwaoboshi had said that Ibori supported Dogara’s election as Speaker and the election of Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
But, in statement issued from Speaker’s office, the Speaker said:
“Our attention has been drawn to statement credited to Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, who was quoted as saying that former Delta state governor James Ibori supported the emergence of Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara as speaker of the House of Representatives.
“We have watched the video clip and noticed that there is nowhere the distinguish senator mentioned Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara by name.
“However, reports published in both online and print media insinuated that senator Peter Nwaoboshi referred to Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara.
“For the records, we want to state that the Rt. Hon. Speaker was elected by the votes of members of the House of Representatives. There may well be silent supporters and well-wishers of the honourable speaker from far and near some of whom he may not be aware of.
“Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara does not have a relationship, political or otherwise with former Governor James Ibori of Delta state to warrant the insinuations in the statement credited to Senator Nwaoboshi, and had never had one.”
It could be recalled that the former governor of Delta state was jailed for 13 years in United Kingdom over misappropriation of the state’s money while he was the governor of the state between 1999-2007.
Iboro was released from United Kingdom Prison on Wednesday.
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