WikiLeaks Report: Senator Dariye response to faceless group of politicians

Yakubu Busari

Since the turn of democracy in 1999, Senator Dariye is someone who is crazy about amplifying the voices of those who are overlooked—that’s the minority tribes that are underestimated and seen as the underdogs.

He is a fervent believer in anchoring the voices of the minority group. Sen. Dariye has lived five lives in one, which encapsulates his political journey in the depth of isolation and despair. He refused to give up to change through resilient and unwavering ability to pivot and turn things around when things seem to be going left.

Senator Dariye, the change maker who came through the political landscape gracefully navigating through its twists and turns to infuse his gentle dash magic bin into Nigerian politics

Senator Joshua Chibi Dariye is now facing another phase of political detractors ahead of the convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairmanship campaign seat. In panic, other aspirants embarked on character assassination and cheap blackmail to gain relevance.

The National Chairmanship campaign train of the former Governor of Plateau State, Sen. Dariye, is in a logjam with his indication of coming out to contest the buildup and mobilization of a faceless group in WikiLeaks reports to create acrimony against the popular candidate.

These groups can go to any lane to blackmail knowing the popularity and political pedigrees of the former Governor Joshua Chibi Dariye, the political head boy.
The political turmoil, Dariye had considered legal redress if blackmailers continued their smear campaign against his credibility in a quest to destroy participation in the North-Central geopolitical zone.

However, the seat for Chairman is currently occupied by Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from the North-West zone after the forceful removal of Alh. Abdullahi Adamu, who is from North-Central Nigeria.

“You recalled that Senator Joshua Dariye, a two-term governor of Plateau State (1999 to 2007) and two-term senator representing the Plateau Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly (2011 to 2019), also refuted a WikiLeaks report currently being circulated in the social media alleging that Afe Babalola & Co. played a role in influencing a gubernatorial election tribunal ruling in Plateau State in his favor, in furtherance of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s political interests.

“In the October 2004 political upheaval, eight members of the state house of assembly led by Mike Dapialong declared the Dariye office vacant as they were sponsored by faceless, undemocratic forces that the governor was arrested by metropolitan police, who found him back to Jos.

“The state house of assembly has eight members that claimed that Dariye was cut with a large sum of money, but after an investigation by the attorney general’s office and the chief judge from the federation, enlisted members were indicted of money laundering offenses.

“The six members were alleged to have been used by desperate power grabbers to ignite the arrest and prosecution of Dariye, even though he was innocent. They created a political scene to blackmail and tarnish his political career, and now they resumed again.

“According to the patently false report, $225,000 was allegedly channeled to secure a favorable ruling for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chief Joshua Dariye.”.

The funds were purportedly funneled through Babalola’s chambers, enabling the PDP to overturn a judgment that initially nullified Chief Dariye’s victory in the 2003 Plateau State gubernatorial elections.

In a strongly worded rebuttal, Chief Dariye pointed out that the allegation is not only false but also malicious and tendentious. According to him, no tribunal or court nullified his victory in the 2003 governorship elections, a fact that speaks for itself and can be readily verified from the records of the tribunal and courts that adjudicated the petitions arising from the 2003 governorship election results in Plateau State.

Furthermore, Chief Dariye emphatically asserted that neither Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, nor any lawyer from his law office was part of the team of eminent lawyers, led by legal icons such as Idowu Sofola SAN, Conrad Joseph SAN, Robert Clarke (now SAN), etc., that successfully defended the spurious election petition against his victory in the 2003 governorship elections.

Chief Dariye, therefore, warned merchants and purveyors of such fake news to cease and desist from their invidious and libelous actions, failing which he will be constrained to seek legal redress.

Democracy, after all, has come to stay, and Nigerians are fast learning, or should learn, to be at home with the principles that underlie government by representation. As it is now, it is considered in certain quarters as a do-or-die affair, and those who eventually come into governance take it as a winner-takes-all while all others suffer neglect.

The experience shows that the time is best for us to start living as civilized people; unfortunately, some elements among us have a tendency to barbarism of the highest order and hardly live as if they are in the 21st century.

We marvel at such primitive sense; is it not time to take to decency and advanced ways of doing things so as also to attract the respect of the so-called advanced world that we envy so much? Must we keep doing things the wrong way in the name of nascent democracy?.

The political forces outside and within saw the unflinching support Dariye is getting and introduced a renewed campaign targeted at him.