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The governorship candidate, Accord Party, AP, in Edo State, Kennedy Iyere, and a chieftain of the party, Curtis Ugbo, have engaged in battle of words following funds spent in the primary election of the party that produced Iyere as flagbearer.
Iyere in a statement in Benin City alleged that Ugbo threatened to kill him, with Ugbo countering that Iyere was owed money spent on the primary election and that in the course of asking him to pay back, he has been threatening his creditors, adding that he had reported the matter to the police.
Iyere said he had also reported the threat to his life to the police and alleging that Ugbo deleted the voice note where he made the alleged death threat immediately he noticed he had listened to it. He challenged him to go with him to the Palace of the Oba of Benin to swear an oath if he denied the allegation.
He said: “After sending the death threat, he immediately deleted the message from the WhatsApp platform when he noticed I had listened to it. He was clear with his threat, ‘I am going to kill you, ‘these were exactly his words. Curtis will be taken to the Oba Palace to stand before the Palace and swear that he did not tell me he is going to kill me.”
Narrating the genesis of the issues that led to the disagreement between them, Iyere stated that he contested and won the Accord Party governorship primary election after being returned unopposed and immediately announced Bright Enabulele as his running mate, adding that Ugbo was in attendance after he brought him to the party.
He furthered that, “Days after the primary, there was a three-man conspiracy against Iyere aimed to remove him as candidate of Accord and replace him with Bright Enabulele, his Deputy who neither contributed a kobo to the primary nor assisted in any other way towards the conduct and success of the primary. Moreover, this same Enabulele, prior to this period of the primary, had not visited Edo State for more than 10 to 15 years.
“The three persons behind the conspiracy were Curtis Eghosa Ugbo, Joseph Omorogbee (Accord Edo Chairman) and Osagie Osazuwa. These three men invited Bright Enabulele to Nigeria and assured him that he would be used as a replacement for Iyere, the man who legitimately and lawfully won the guber primary of Accord Party and picked him as a running mate. Enabulele agreed with them and flew down to Nigeria but only to discover that it was impossible to replace Iyere.
“When they had failed to achieve their plans within the substitution window of INEC, Curtis Ugbo has now resorted to issuing serious death threats.”
In his reaction, Ugbo said “He (Iyere) owes us money, and he refused to pay. I sponsored his primary election and he promised that he is going to return my money. He owes me over three million naira; he owes Tony Okon over 1.8 million naira and one other Osagie Osazuwa N200,000. Since after the primary election, we have not seen Iyere till now.
“I was told he was in Benin, he refused to come and pay me my money, instead he is insulting me, insulting everybody, threatening everybody. He is the one threatening that he will kill me. He cannot kill me because he owes me money; he has to pay me my money. I am asking him to pay me my money, that is all. I don’t have any problem with him. Tell him to pay me my money; it is him that wants to kill himself. I have already reported him to the police, I have reported him to the Palace of the Oba of Benin.”
