The All Progressives Congress, APC claims the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is broke and may not have the funds to finance his election bid, contrary to speculations that he is wealthy.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena who stated this on Tuesday said the PDP was at a crossroads on how to source funds for the 2019 electioneering campaign.
“The Presidential candidate expects the party to provide funds for his campaign. This is the Buhari Era, an era of strict accountability and transparency in the use and application of public funds and not the Jonathan Era in 2015 when the national treasury was opened to PDP leaders to prosecute the Presidential campaign.
“The party leaders are, therefore, in serious difficulty and dilemma on how to source funds to run the Atiku Presidential Campaign. Some financiers of the party expect that the candidate, having bought the ticket with millions of dollars should have the financial capacity to run his campaign.
‘’With the candidate’s expectation that it is the party that will fund his campaign, it is now clear that they are at a crossroads and the chickens have come home to roost. The anti-corruption agencies should gird their loins and ensure that all sources of campaign funds by political parties are closely monitored and recover the funds looted during the Jonathan era.
"Such recovered funds should be applied for the benefit of the poor masses who were denied democracy dividends during the 16 years misrule of the PDP. “It is now clear to the members of the PDP who were deceived into believing that their presidential candidate is a man of stupendous wealth that it is all a mirage, a 419 packaging and that they entered a ‘one chance’ bus.
“As we approach February 2019 when General Elections will be held in Nigeria, the electorates are becoming more conscious and aware of the deceitful nature of their so-called leaders. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential Candidate of the PDP is nationally known as a man of immense wealth.
‘’Apart from his being a retired officer of the Department of Customs and Excise not above the rank of Deputy Director, and not known to have been an exceptionally successful businessman, his claims to stupendous wealth and sources are questionable and lack credibility. During the ‘dollar rain’ at the Port Harcourt Convention of the Party, he outspent all the other aspirants and easily clinched the party’s Presidential ticket. Having emerged without the support of the ‘Governor-General’ of the party, who had earlier produced the party’s National Chairman and ordered the party to hold its convention in Port Harcourt, Alhaji Atiku is now on ‘his own’ in bankrolling his campaign.
“The Nigerian Electorate has a better alternative- to stick to the clean, honest and transparent leadership of Muhammadu Buhari, who has done so much to ensure better future for them after the 16 years misrule of the PDP”, he added.
