APC chieftain: PDP, Atiku face challenges of campaign funding

Former Acting National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Yekini Nabena, yesterday said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, were facing challenges of raising funds for the party’s presidential campaigns. According to Nabena, this was as a result of stringent measures put in place by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary said available information from a source on the recent strategic meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, disclosed that there was a major setback as the hope of sourcing campaign funds from public coffers had been dashed.

He said: “The presidential candidate expects the party to provide funds for his campaign. This is Buhari’s era, an era of strict accountability and transparency in the use and application of public funds and not the Goodluck Jonathan era, when the national treasury was opened to PDP leaders to prosecute the presidential campaign.

“The party leaders are therefore in serious difficulties and dilemma on how to source funds to run the Atiku presidential campaign. Some financers 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 fund by the political parties are closely monitored and recover the funds looted during the Jonathan era. Such recovered funds should be applied for the benefits of the poor masses that were denied democracy benefits during the 16 years misrule of the PDP.

“As we approach February 2019, when general election will be held, the electorate is becoming more conscious and aware of the deceitful nature of their socalled 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 & Excise not above the rank of deputy director, and not known to have been an exceptionally successful businessman, his claims to stupendous wealth and source 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 candidacy ticket.”