The national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not give then governorship candidate, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, N1 billion to run his campaign, former APC vice chairman for north central, Suleiman Wambai, has said.
Speaking on the recent controversy around campaign funds in Kwara state during the 2019 ballot, Wambai said the funds the party sent to Kwara and other states was for election logistics such as payment for polling agents, supervisors, and canvassers.
“And that particular money came with a specific template of distribution and various stakeholders, including national officers, were involved in its disbursement.
“The candidate, like his counterparts in other states, took delivery of the said funds but that was all. Its disbursement followed a template that the party had earlier approved.
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“As the chairman of the party in the north central I was to be there, but I couldn’t possibly be in all the North Central states at the same time. In any case, we had a national officer of the party, the National Publicity Secretary who is from Kwara State.
“We did not have any complaints from Kwara or any other state that the said fund was mismanaged. It was used for the purpose it was meant for.”
He said the allegation by the former state chairman of the party, Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa, that the governor did not disclose the fund sent to him was “definitely false because the disbursement was transparently done, otherwise, where did the money paid to our party agents, supervisors, canvassers came from?”
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“The reports from Kwara and elsewhere showed that all the polling agents and others that were meant to be paid were duly paid as designed.”
Wambai clarified that Kwara did not get up to one billion naira and whatever that came was disbursed in accordance with the template from the national headquarters of the party.
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