by Sahara Reporters
The crises rocking the Ogun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP took a new dimension on Tuesday as the senator-elect of Ogun East, Buruji Kashamu reportedly assaulted the State Presidential campaign Co-ordinator, Prince Segun Seriki over President Jonathan’s campaign funds.
Sahara Reporters gathered that Seriki who was at the Nicon Hilton Hotel in Abuja for a political meeting met with the Buruji at the entrance of the hotel and engaged him in a verbal altercation which led to Buruji assaulting the campaign coordinator.
It was further gathered that the face-off was connected with the N700 million campaign fund released to the committee headed by Seriki for the presidential election in the state.
Kashamu was in the company of the National Coordinator of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN, Ifeanyi Uba when the incident happened.
Seriki, a former member of the Federal House of Representatives, confirmed the incident Thursday, saying it was embarrassing and unfortunate.
The Ijebu Igbo born politician explained that Kashamu nearly tore his cloth, if not for the quick intervention of the people around.
He added that the Senator-Elect was running after him in a very violent manner and shouting on top of the voice.
According to him, “his offence was that he refused to be tele-guided by Kashamu, especially, when the campaign fund was released and that he was answerable to former Governor,Otunba Gbenga Daniel instead of him”,Seriki said.
He revealed that a sum of N30 million was given to Kashamu and other candidates from the initial N200 million given to him, adding that, he later gave N200 million from N 500 million later given to the committee.
Seriki alleged that Kashamu threatened to kidnap him.
According to him, “It was a very embarrassing development, he attacked me at the Hilton Hotel yesternight and he nearly torn my cloth off, if not for the quick intervention of the people, because he was practically behaving like someone possesses.
“He was with Ifeanyi Uba when I met him, he was so violent and started running after me while I ran backward. My offence was that I was pro-OGD and didn’t give him much support during the election.
“When I was appointed as the campaign coordinator, I was in between a credible platform represented by Otunba Gbenga Daniel and a controversial platform represented by Buruji Kashamu, but I chose Daniel, because OGD has the widest mass appeal in Ogun State.
“Before my appointment, there was practically no poster or billboard of President Jonathan in the state and I erected about 100 billboards all over the state with the initial N200 million given to the committee while I bought 45 Sienna cars to aggrieved people who Kashamu was pushing out of the party, but Kashamu was requesting for part of the money,” he revealed.
Seriki who blamed Kashamu for the poor political outing of PDP at the last election in the state, explained that he (Kashamu) took over the party structure with ‘questionable judicial process and unilaterally wrote the name of the unpopular candidates and imposed them on the party.’
He lamented that Kashamu should be praising him, if he had good intentions about the election matter, but that he was after the fund for personal aggrandizement, alleging that Kashamu requested the money to be shared among few people.
When asked if he had reported the matter to the police, Seriki explained that he believed that the alleged threat by Kashamu holds no water, adding that, he doesn’t want his case ‘to accelerate the credibility problem hanging on Kashamu’s neck.’
When contacted, the media aide to the Senator-Elect, Austin Oniyokor said he was not with his boss to confirm the development but was quick to say that the allegation, to him, was a very funny one.
He agreed that there might have been some altercations because they belong to the same political party, he however said his boss wouldn’t have gone to the extent of physically assaulting the coordinator.
He however queried why Seriki refused to report such allegation with the security operatives.
“There might have been an issue, it might have led to altercations, but the allegation was very funny and very unfortunate.
“May be, there might have been altercation, but that Prince Buruji Kashamu attacked him personally was making a mountain out of molehill.It couldn’t have gotten to that stage, it is not possible, it is an unfounded claim. There is no way Prince Buruji would attack anybody.”
