2015 Election: Kwara PDP misappropriated N1.5bn funds, APC alleges
The Kwara State All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday called on the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) to probe the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state over alleged misappropriation of N1.5 billion 2015 election campaign funds.
The APC said the probe becomes necessary in the light of similar activities of the anti-graft commission on the opposition party in other states. But the state chairman of the party, Iyiola Oyedepo dismissed the call of the party and urged the APC to go ahead with its investigation with the EFCC.
"The APC should pursue their investigation to the EFCC for them to come and arrest us", Oyedepo told National Pilot on phone while reacting to the issue last night. Some leaders of the party have been at loggerheads with Oyedepo over failure to account for how the fund was disbursed to the party during the 2015 election was spent.
The fallout of the crisis was reportedly responsible for the recent factionalisation of the PDP which lead to the emergence of the Sunday Fagbemi-led executives. In a write-up titled "When is EFCC coming to Kwara?" forwarded to this medium by the Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari yesterday, the party's spokesman alleged that over N1.5 billion of "our common wealth" made available to the party through its former BoT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih was embezzled by some leaders of the party.
Buhari said: "And in the last six months or thereabout, the EFCC has descended on leaders of the PDP in each states of the federation. As at last count, the EFCC has visited Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Enugu, Anambra, Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Jigawa, Gomber, Zamfara and a host of others. Curiously however, the EFCC has kept the Kwara PDP and its corrupt chieftains at bay. "PDP organised all sorts of fund-raisers in Abuja as well as in Ilorin. In their first outing, they realised about N100 million which till today has remained uncounted for.
"In their second attempt in Ilorin, they realised what a source put at about N50 million with other tangible donations like vehicles and campaign materials. "Where both the money and the vehicles have all gone is still a misery that even party members could not resolve. But the real money did not start to come in until sometimes in December, 2014 when the PDP got its first disbursement of N80 million for a mere visit of President Goodluck Jonathan. "The money was allegedly handed to the self-acclaimed State Coordinator of the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign, Mr. Dele Belgore. The money was given by Chief Tony Anenih.
"From confirmed sources, the money originally appropriated by the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee for its Kwara chapter was actually N200 million. How more than half of this sum got missing in transit is an explanation only answerable by Chief Tony Anenih...who brought the Ghana-Must-Go bags."A few weeks after then, the Kwara PDP received yet another share of the loot, this time, a whopping N400 million. This princely sum was reportedly given to the self-styled godmother of the party in Kwara state, Hajia Bola Shagaya. "This is almost true considering Shagaya's close relationship with Patience Jonathan, Nigeria's controversial former First Lady.
"Strangely, although N400 million was disbursed, what eventually got to Kwara for the whole campaign transactions was not more than N250 million. Can you imagine people who insisted that there were alternatives to the ruling elite? "The third and the last came on the eve of the 2015 elections. Informed sources said it was about N800 million and was disbursed among the trio of the party's gubernatorial aspirant, Simeon Ajibola, Bola Shagaya and Iyiola Oyedepo, who had the onerous responsibility of sharing the cash within the party's local structures.
"This last tranche was meant to buy up voters and INEC staff across the state, it was meant to bribe malleable security agents who had been earlier identified. But as if sensing that, that would be their last, the leaders feasted on the loot, sat on it and prevented it from reaching even those it was actually meant for. The rest, they say, is history.
"In total, the Kwara PDP alone received about N1. 5billion from the stolen commonwealth; a commonwealth meant for the security of all of us, for the Chibok girls and our soldiers at the war front. Unfortunately, there is nothing to show for it at the end but a woeful rejection at the polls".
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