President Muhammadu Buhari has for the first time commented on the creeping influence of American dollars being used by some politicians at party primaries to snatch tickets.

He recalled the 2014 APC presidential primary in Lagos where dollars were disbursed to delegates to edge him out of the race.

He also pointed at the just concluded PDP primaries in Port Harcourt where dollars were also used by aspirants to secure the presidential ticket.

President Buhari spoke Saturday at the closing of the 3-day Interfaith Conference on “Religious Harmony in Nigeria: Towards the 2019 General Elections’’, in Abuja on Saturday

“I’m telling you and some of you know during my primary (in 2014) my opponents said Naira had finished and people were given dollars.

“Even in their late primaries recently dollars were being given, nobody takes Naira.

“Really, it’s materialism that we will fight to make sure that we stabilise every level and do justice to our country.

“But, what I found out regrettably is that we refused to learn by other people’s experience and we are refusing to learn from our own mistakes,’’ he said. (NAN)

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