A former All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential aspirant in the 2023 general elections, Tein Jack-Rich, has denied claims that he was bribing members of the party, including the President for ministerial appointment.
Recall that an online newspaper that is not DAILY NIGERIAN had claimed that Mr Jack-Rich had offered about N500million as a bribe to the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, in order to be appointed as petroleum minister.
But the APC chieftain, in a statement signed on Tuesday by his media desk, described the allegations as a figment of the publisher’s imagination.
According to him, the allegation is not only laughable and untrue but also quite baseless and spuriously unfounded.
The statement said: “As a senior stakeholder in the ruling Party, the APC where he contested for the presidential primaries and lost to our incumbent President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and has worked assiduously to help his great party to win the elections, Mr. Tein Jack-Rich has all it takes to merit an appointment into any office as would be deemed fit by our dear President, and so do not need to bribe anyone in the party jointly he built with others.
“Also worthy of note is the fact that Mr. Tein T.S. Jack-Rich CON is a worthy APC party-man who hasn’t been a member of any political party in history. His first political journey started with APC in 2014 and have remained faithful since then till date, despite the headwinds and tail winds of politics.
“Those who called APC names, those who called Jack-Rich names for following APC yesterday, those who didn’t see anything good in APC have suddenly woken from their sleep to see wealth in APC, hence this vociferous campaign of calumny against the family of a great national promoter.”
Mr Jack-Rich, therefore, stressed that he would never need to bribe anyone for any political appointment in a party he just recently served as the Vice-Chairman Finance Committee of the Presidential Campaign.
“So, there was just no need for anyone to sponsor such a campaign of calumny and blackmail against him, except for extreme desperation.
“It is quite shameful that in their quest to derogate Mr. Jack-Rich’s personality, the sponsored publication equally made references to his family; something so petty and quite unfounded.
“Again, l state without any equivocation that, all the references made thereto in the referenced publications to his wife, are all fabricated and cooked up by the publisher/author to satisfy his/their sponsors.
“Again, none of their convoluted lies and falsehood ever happened, and will never happen,” the self-made philanthropist added.
