Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has described the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) charge against him as a witch-hunt because of his support for former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He is expected to appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on November 9 over false declaration of assets and acceptance of about N70million bribe
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, the 56-year-old argued he has done nothing to justify what he described as persecution by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He declared that he had neither demanded nor collected a bribe throughout the six years he served as minister.
His words: “I was served with Code of Conduct Tribunal summons on Friday last week and the paper, which I personally signed and collected, stated that I was expected to appear before them on November the ninth.
“I was taken aback by the news that I had already been arraigned. This tells me that it is an issue of witch hunt which is not good for this country. It is not good to take me to the public court before being tried.
“The issues contained in the summons are that I took N50 million bribe from one of the contractors who handled a project for the Ministry of Niger Delta and another N20 million from the same contractor as well as not declaring my plots of land in Asokoro and Kyame districts of Abuja. I find these charges very empty and frivolous.”
Orubebe was recently involved in a war of words with Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, over Jonathan’s performance as President.
Qed.ng recalls that Orubebe had a meltdown agent at the result collation centre in Abuja during the last presidential election when it became clear that Jonathan was losing to Buhari as the votes were being counted.
