Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has taken Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, to the cleaners over his attack on the Minister of Federal Capital Terri­tory (FCT) and former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.

Dogara, in his letter entitled, “GOV BALA vs HE WIKE: LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD,” revealed how Wike financed Bala Moham­med governorship election in 2019, mandated Chief Dan Osi Orbih to deliver PDP ticket to him and oth­er issues that transpired between them when the going was good.

Dogara pointed out that Gov­ernor Bala Mohammed’s recent outbursts against Wike though not entirely surprising have only served to expand the vistas of in­gratitude and treachery based on what he knows.

He said, “As I witness this gross injustice, the questions I ask myself, are: is my comfort more important than saying the truth and is my fear of conflict worth al­lowing harm to go unchallenged? I have learned enough over the years to know beyond reasonable doubt that in the face of situations like this, if I choose to prioritise my comfort, I will fail the victim and fail myself. This is because injus­tice itself is a festering wound, it only grows worse when brushed aside.

“As someone who knows so much because I was the provo­cateur of the events between the two that I will speak to, I consider my silence not just cowardice but complicity. Therefore, I am not afraid to stand alone or risk con­flict. I should not be misunderstood to be defending Wike but simply stating the raw truth that I know and I really don’t give a damn if the truth makes Wike look good. I have learnt to say the truth as I enjoy my freedom from being a slave to human opinion.

“For starters, need I remind Governor Bala Mohammed that in 2018 PDP Gubernatorial prima­ries when we were not too sure he will win because, his then major opponent, Senator Abdul Ningi was the one who constituted the state party structure and had a bosom friend as Party chairman, it was Wike we turned to for help. I had called Wike to plead with him to help us in Bauchi without neces­sarily disclosing to him that it was Bala Mohammed that we wanted delivered. His response to me, was that are you sure you are in control of the process 100 percent? I said, I wasn’t too sure and he said to me leave it to me, I will help you sort it out.

“To do it, Wike first of all made his bosom friend and close ally, Chief Dan Osi Orbih the Chair­man of the Panel for the Primaries and said I should discuss whatever I wanted with Chief Dan. We got talking and on the eve of the Pri­maries, Chief Dan was in Benin City and we needed to get him to Bauchi for the assignment, it was to Wike that I turned to again and his response to me was, my brother, I have told you not to bother about this. Tell Chief Dan to come to meet me in Port Harcourt. I did just that and amazingly Wike provided the private jet that flew Chief Dan to Bauchi and out of Bauchi for the assignment. I can say without fear of any contradiction that Wike bore all expenses for the exercise. It’s therefore shocking that this so-called ‘transactional character’ called Wike did not place any con­dition whatsoever for his support.

“That is just the beginning of the story I hate to tell but I must. Af­ter the emergence of Bala Moham­med as the party flag bearer and having promised to sponsor all the party candidates if he gets the tick­et, we were rudely awoken to the reality that Bala Mohammed had no money for his own campaigns let alone for other candidates of the party. Initially I thought it was some kind of a funny joke but as time went, I realised to my utter bewilderment that it was true.”

Dogara recounted how they were disappointed when a commit­tee was organised to raise funds for Bala Mohammed, adding, “We had the fundraiser and to cut the long story short, all we raised from the fundraiser was a paltry N48 mil­lion and If you deduct the N20 million invested in organising it, that leaves you with a net of N28 million. I have the records and our stakeholders are there to bear wit­ness to this.”

Disclosing how Wike rescued them from financial embarrass­ment, Dogara said, “I told our then two serving Senators who are alive and can testify that the only option we had was to go to a friend and brother, then Governor Wike for assistance. We got tickets and flew to Port Harcourt with Bala Mo­hammed without informing Wike that we were coming with him.