The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has faulted calls for investigation into the funding of the party’s 2015 presidential campaign, which brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power. Buhari won the March 28, 2015 presidential election defeating Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The funding of the presidential campaign of the PDP is currently under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The commission has since filed a case against the former National Security Adviser, Col. Dasuki Sambo (rtd), for allegedly sharing $2.1 billion originally meant for arms purchase to fund the campaign of Jonathan to some party chieftains.
Speaking on “The Encounter with Constance Ikokwu,” a programme on WeFM 106.3, Odigie- Oyegun, said that it was wrong to ask the EFCC to investigate the sources of funding for the APC campaign because unlike the PDP, his party did not use public money to fund its presidential election. He said: “You are comparing apples and grapes.
It is the people’s money. You can’t use the money of the people to run parties and so the APC today is suffering from that basic incorrect policy decision. But campaign funds cannot come from the money that belongs to the generality of Nigerians. “Individuals can donate and companies can donate subject to limits that the law provides.
We are not touching those. But where you take money meant for positioning troops in the North-East to fight against Boko Haram to fund parties (and) the most recent – when you take our crude, gave unregistered crude to exporters, repatriate the proceeds and use them to finance your political campaigns – that is wrong. That is impunity at its worst. So they are not comparable.”
