Eseme Eyiboh, special adviser on media and publicity to the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has dismissed a claim by blogger Jackson Ude that Akpabio’s friends intend to use Senate funds to celebrate his birthday.
In a rebuttal on Wednesday, Mr Eyiboh challenged the author to show evidence or else be prepared for legal action over his allegation.
Eyiboh, who identified himself as a pivot in the coordination of the birthday, affirmed that it was a purely private initiative from Akpabio’s friends and associates who consistently over the years come together to celebrate him.
He affirmed that Mr Ude not being a friend or associate could not have been privy to this yearly show of solidarity.
Eyiboh said, “Mr Ude who is certainly not a friend nor an associate of the President of the Senate has cooked up imaginations that extend the bounds of fantasy to apparently buttress his ranking in fiction writing.
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“Unfortunately, in pushing his story on the plans that friends have for the Senate President, Ude has in his write-up encroached on the personal confidentiality of some of the friends of Senator Akpabio. It is a regrettable act of indiscretion picking up names of genuine friends of the President of the Senate in the hatchet job of character assassination of the distinguished President of the Senate and his close associates.
“As one of the friends deeply associated with the plans of the birthday, I affirm that the assertions of Ude including the tale of mopping funds from the Senate for the birthday are a cocktail of fabricated lies for which no serious person should rivet attention to.
“The birthday plans of the President of the Senate are well thought-out plans from friends and associates from within and outside the National Assembly and funded from private sources even without the input of the President of the President.”
Eyiboh urged the public to discountenance Ude’s allegations.
