APC crisis: I never said I spent N35bn on Buhari’s elections, says Tinubu

TRACKING ___Fourty-eight hours after Comrade Adams Oshiomholeled National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was dissolved by the National Executive Council (NEC), the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday denied reports that he allegedly spent N35 billion on the elections of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and 2019. Tinubu’s denial followed a report (not Saturday Telegraph), where it quoted Tinubu as expressing regrets that he spent heavily on the president.

The report, according to an online news portal news item, TheCable.com, said while having a discussion with the former interim chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande, on the dissolution of the national working committee of the ruling party, Tinubu accused the president of betraying him. But in a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Tunde Rahman, on his behalf, Tinubu dismissed the claims. The statement reads: “The authors of the libelous report claimed Asiwaju made the allegation in a discussion with former APC Interim Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.

“Firstly, no one person elected President Buhari. He was elected by the generality of Nigerian electorate. Asiwaju Tinubu would not arrogate you himself the commendable decision taken by the people. Also, that outlandish claim only existed in the imagination of the authors of the story.

“Asiwaju rooted for President Buhari’s election and in 2015 and re-election in 2019 along with other right-thinking political leaders and teeming members of APC and Nigerians across the country. “He has no reason to regret the rightful decision or describe President Buhari as ‘ungrateful’. He remains steadfast in his support for the president and the programmes and policies of his administration as he has always been. Nothing has occurred to warrant any change of heart.” The statement said since reference was made to how Akinwunmi Ambode, a former governor of Lagos, could not secure another term, it is possible that those behind the report “betrayed where they came from”. “The report linked recent developments in APC to the fate suffered by former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in the 2019 governorship race in Lagos State, perhaps betraying where the authors were coming from,” the statement read.