The Governor Simon Lalong-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council at the weekend disclosed that the party’s campaign will not be funded by the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

Instead, it maintained that the nationwide rallies to solicit for votes from Nigerians will be partly financed by businessmen as well as deductions from the salaries of political appointees.

Over the years, there have been insinuations that governments usually dip their hands into the public coffers to fund elections or direct its agencies and parastatals to donate monies to the campaigns.

But during an appearance on state-owned Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) , a panel comprising Lalong, the APC council spokesman, Festus Keyamo (SAN) as well as the National Woman Leader of the party, Dr Betta Edu, agreed that Buhari will not sanction the use of state resources to fund elections.

Specifically, Keyamo argued that if the APC defeated a sitting government when it was in the opposition without state funding, the ‘essential Buhari’ will not allow the practice of using public funds for national polls.

“We have had two rounds of election behind us and so in 2015, we were not the governing party. We were in opposition. And we ran a successful campaign against the ruling party because of the love for the APC.

“And the way people came out and supported the APC at that time, we defeated the ruling party from the position of an underdog at that time. In 2019, I remember I was also the director of strategic communication and spokesperson and I followed every speech issued by the president at that time. I was the one that pushed them out.

“The president consistently said in 2019 when he was on the ballot that nobody should ever go to any government department. In fact, he was instructing government departments not to answer anybody who comes to drop his name that the president said money should come out from this department.

“He did that in order to clear himself that he has not sent anybody anywhere to raise any money within the system. That was the first time a president will make such a bold statement since 1999 to say nobody should drop his name to collect money from the system.

“So you should understand the essential Buhari, who is actually still in charge. Did you see that even non-state actors came to that primaries of our party? Our party members bought forms for N100 million. They are not people in government, they are private businessmen.

“That’s not to talk of the money they used for mobilisation. So, we have these Nigerians, businessmen, passionate supporters. And it is not true that we don’t make contributions. As a sitting minister, they take money from my salary every month. If I bring my salary slip, you will see deductions,” he maintained. Keyamo was responding to a question on where APC was getting its funding.

Quoting Lalong, who is the Director General of the campaign council, Keyamo noted that even without funds being released yet, people had already started printing banners for the candidate of the party, Bola Tinubu.

“If you know the essential Buhari, you will know that no money has changed hands,” he insisted.

Keyamo also defended the APC primaries saying that there was no evidence that money exchanged hands, insisting it was free and fair.

On his part, the Plateau state Governor stressed that Buhari was committed to a free and fair election and will not support rigging.

“We went to the United Nations and we just came back. His speech at the United Nations was emphasising a free and fair election. How many presidents have done this before? In Nigeria I have not seen it. This one has come up before the United Nations to say please assess me on the basis of free or fair elections.

“Now free and fair election involves everything you are talking about. For us at the campaign, we are not thinking of using the muscles of government. We are not thinking of using security personnel. We’re not thinking of using the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“We are going to campaign on issues and let Nigerians have the opportunity to decide. That’s why I told you, we’re starting from the grassroots,” he said.

He insisted that the grassroots has enjoyed the current administration, stressing that even the youths have the assurance that there’s hope for the future.

Lalong stressed that there’s so far no record of an APC government state stopping people from advertising or using public facilities for rallies, asking anyone who has been so treated to come forward with evidence.

“If there’s a complaint like that, there are regulations and guidelines from the electoral law. So it’s for people to write and complain to INEC that this is what is happening. But at the level of our campaigns, we’re going to make this very clear to everybody, we’re going to ensure that we comply with the regulations guiding election,” he assured.

Lalong stated that Buhari, who is the Chairman of the APC Campaign Council will not tolerate the oppression of the opposition whether at the state of federal levels.

In her comments, Edu said advertising is actually contracted out to a firms that run them for government, noting that in Cross River where she comes from, all the government is interested in is advert revenue. (THISDAY: Text, excluding headline)

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