Presidency offered us N7.45m – SNG

The Save Nigeria Group on Monday confirmed that the Presidency offered $50,000 (about N7.45m) to its delegation that visited President Goodluck Jonathan on November 22.

A United States-based Nigerian news portal, Saharareporters, claimed on Monday that the SNG convener, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said that the money was sent back to the Presidency through one of Jonathan’s ‘unofficial’ aides.

But the Minister of Niger Delta, Mr. Godsday Orubebe, whom the news portal alleged sent the ‘unofficial aide,’ to deliver the money, denied the claim.

Saharareporters had on Sunday reported that the SNG was offered the sum to drop its supposed opposition to the President’s ambition to contest the 2011 presidential poll.

However, Mr. Tony Uranta who was described as the aide by the news portal reacted to the report on his Facebook page on Sunday. He said that Saharareporters misrepresented the crux of the meeting between the President and the Bakare-led delegation.

Specifically, Uranta denied that Jonathan discussed his ambition to contest the 2011 presidential election with the SNG delegation. He also stated that no money was offered to the SNG team.

But Saharareporters claimed that Bakare, who is also the founder of the Latter Rain Assembly, a pentecostal church based in Lagos, said the report was factual.

According to the news agency, the cleric said during a telephone interview on Monday, that Orubebe, offered the $50,000 to SNG delegation on behalf of Jonathan.

The group, said the news agency, had met with Jonathan to review his performance in office.

Bakare was quoted by Saharareporters as saying, “You can quote me. I don‘t do deals and I don‘t lie. Tony [Uranta] could be saving his own face. Tony lied that he didn‘t collect the money from us.

“There are living witnesses. Orubebe has confirmed to me that the money was returned. Mr. President is aware through Oronto Douglas (Jonathan’s Senior Special Adviser on Strategy) that we returned the money through Tony.”

The clergyman reportedly added that the SNG spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, himself and other officials of the group went to the meeting with Jonathan with a written document that explained why they would not support his candidacy.

But Orubebe distanced himself and the Presidency from offering money to the SNG, saying there was no need for it.

In a statement titled, “No reason to bribe SNG”, Orubebe said that Bakare might have been quoted out of context.

He noted that the SNG had in the past spoken out against the state of affairs in the country during the prolonged sickness of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, without any prompting from Jonathan.

The minister said he was shocked and disappointed at the claims attributed to Bakare.

While admitting that bribery was abhorrent in all forms, the minister added that it would be an insult to offer $50,000 to individuals of the stature of Bakare and other members of the SNG.

He said, “I have read, with a deep sense of shock and disappointment, allegations made against me in an online medium, claiming that I attempted to bribe the leadership of the Save Nigeria Group, SNG, after a visit with the President.

“I find these allegations deeply distressing, and I am certain that the highly respected Pastor Tunde Bakare must have been quoted out of context.

“I am forced to react to these allegations only because I would consider it an insult for anyone to attempt to bribe someone of that stature, visiting with his group, $50,000.

“True, a bribe is a bribe, no matter the sum. This is the reason why I am all the more concerned and worried about these claims.

“What I however find intriguing is that there is absolutely no reason to bribe the SNG.

“The story is a false story that should be dismissed by all right thinking persons.”
Source: Punch Newspapers

Here we go again,Orubebe again?.

The news was falsified,Tunde bakare denied the 'Sahara reporters's' report.
He said they did not take the money,though it was true that they offered them as transport money.