Gulak Buried, But His $2m Bribe Story Endures

Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, the former political adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan was buried in Abuja on Sunday amid an outpouring of condemnations over the apparent assassination of the active political actor.

However, whether his burial would also bury some of the controversies that dogged his political career is another thing.

One of the major issues that dogged the steps of Gulak in the political terrain was his involvement in the Imo State All Progressives Congress, APC governorship primary of 2018. One of the issues was his controversial claim that he rejected a $2 million bribe offer from former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha to supposedly twist the result of the primary. Gulak was the head of the panel that was constituted by the Adams Oshiomhole led National Working Committee, NWC.

It was his supposed refusal to accept the bribe that allegedly forced him to ‘flee’ Owerri in the middle of the night that October in 2018  leading to a controversy that led to two results. While Gulak produced a result that favoured Senator Hope Uzodimma, another section of the committee produced a result that favoured Uche Nwosu, the son-in-law of Okorocha that the former governor was desperate to be his successor.

Okorocha firmly denied ever making $2 million bribe offer to Gulak and described the now deceased politician as a liar who he said ought to be in jail for his manipulation of the governorship primary.

With the APC ticket in his pocket, Uzodimma eventually contested the election and took fourth position according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC behind Emeka Ihedioha, PDP, Nwosu, AA and Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, APGA. However, the Supreme Court in a ruling in January 2020, declared Uzodimma as the winner of the election and removed Ihedioha who had been inaugurated.

Political pundits affirm that without the Gulak intervention that it is contestable if Uzodimma would ever have become governor of Imo State and it is remarkable that he was killed after a visit to the state.

Gulak’s business in Imo State was still unknown as at Sunday morning and his death is bound to for now bury the controversy over the $2 million alleged bribe and his role in the controversial APC primaries.

Beyond his role in the emergence of Uzodimma as governor, GreenWhiteGreen GWG recalls that Gulak was sacked under controversial circumstances as political adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 following pressure from some governors allegedly including Godswill Akpabio, the PDP governor of Akwa Ibom State.

He was at the centre of the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP crisis in his native Adamawa State.

He, however, said that his departure from the Jonathan presidency was to enable him contest the governorship contest in Adamawa State as he said that the people were tired of the APC government of Murtala Nyako.

However, despite his brag, the PDP lost the election to the APC in 2015.

Significantly, when he defected to the APC in 2018 Gulak boasted that his defection to the APC was the burial of the PDP.

“We have left the PDP with its entire structures in the state to join the APC, so the PDP is destroyed and buried. We have also converted the party secretariat to APC,” Gulak said in February, 2018 when he joined APC from the PDP.

However, despite Gulak’s claims of burying the PDP, the party in 2019 went on to defeat the APC in the governorship election.

When he was buried in Gudu Cemetery, Abuja on Sunday night the PDP despite its challenges had not been buried in Adamawa or anywhere else. The party was indeed better than when Gulak left it. Also surviving Gulak is the $2 million bribery claim that he left behind unresolved.

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