Benin City – Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata, has refuted circulating rumors suggesting that his gubernatorial aspirations were being financially backed by Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Addressing journalists on Sunday in Benin City during his appearance as a special guest at the award day for the 2023 Press Week of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akpata dismissed claims portraying him as a moneyed individual seeking the Labour Party (LP) ticket, labeling such allegations as displays of immaturity.
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According to him,
“That I am sponsored by Godwin Obaseki is an unfounded rumour and baseless. It was bandied around by two irresponsible online blogs, who I shall be going after with all the venom that I can muster because my approach to fake news is that you nip it in the bud and you deal with it before it festers.
“It has also been bandied around by some disgruntled politicians in both camps including my party and I said to them that that is a very weak argument or weak reasoning.
“My relationship with the governor has never been hidden. It is only politicians who don’t know how to agree to disagree that quickly conclude that when two contenders sit together, they must belong to the same camp.
In the old Bendel State, my father’s elder brother Senator Olu Akpata was in the UPN in 1979, his cousin Tayo Akpata was the chairman of NPN in the same state. They had lunch and dinner together.”
