The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has denied receiving donations from any minister or governor of the party as campaign funds for the 2019 general elections in Kwara state.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, on June 26, alleged that a cabal within the party who received hundreds of millions of naira as donations for the Kwara struggle, did not deliver a kobo to him.
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Mohammed, who spoke at the unveiling/launch of a parallel secretariat of the APC in Ilorin, the state capital, on Saturday, said the recently concluded registration exercise conducted for members in the state was not genuine in that it did not capture every member of the party.
The state government and a faction of the APC led by the minister had held a parallel rally to mark the two-year celebration of the party in power in the state.
While Governor AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq’s faction of the party has its party secretariat located at the Tanke area, the minister’s faction unveiled its secretariat at GRA, Ilorin.
Mohammed, says he has been given an assurance that there will be no APC congress in Kwara until all members of the party are duly registered and have revalidated their membership.
The minister said the APC Caretaker Chairman and governor of Yobe, Mai-Mala Buni, gave him the assurance when he led a team of party leaders from Kwara to him.
Mohammed disclosed this on Saturday in Ilorin at the inauguration of a new state secretariat of the party.
While addressing APC members who thronged the new secretariat, the minister gave an assurance that those who were denied registration or revalidation of their membership during the last exercise would be captured before congress is held in the state.
“Let me assure you that there will be no congress in Kwara State until and when we are all registered and that is when such congress will be free and fair.
“About two weeks ago, myself, Prof. Oba Abdulraheem and Makama, went to the national chairman of the party and he assured us that Kwara State is a special state.
“He assured us that there will be no congress until we are all registered.
“I am therefore appealing to all of you to come out and register when they come,’’ he said.
The minister decried what he called the non-inclusive administration being run by Gov. AbduRahman, contending that it was tantamount to biting the fingers that fed him.
He said he single handedly funded the run-off and 2019 elections in the state which the APC won landslide.
“By the grace of God, I single-handedly, with the support of friends, politicians and families raised all the money for the five elections.
“I challenge anybody here to say who gave the party one penny apart from what I gave them.
“The money paid to party agents and leaders to mobilise voters was raised by me.
“I challenge anybody here to say that he gave logistic support to the party, I did it by the grace of God,’
“I distributed 500 motorcycles, 20 vehicles and many of the beneficiaries are here,’’ he said.
The minister also refuted the allegations that he diverted campaign funds to personal use.
He said if he had not deployed the funds he raised judiciously, the party would not have been able to record the resounding success in the elections.
Mohammed alleged that Hon. Tunji Ajuloopin, representing Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Okeero Federal Constituency embezzled N70 million campaign fund.
He alleged that during the re-run election in the constituency, the lawmaker could only account for N30 million out of the N100 million raised.
“They should explain what happened to the balance of N70 million that Ajulo kept and refused to give us during the election.
“I have to go to friends to raise another 150 million to prosecute that election which we won,’’ he said.
He stressed that it was unfortunate that after he laboured with other party leaders to win Kwara for APC, the governor and his cohorts were maligning him.
The factional state chairman of APC in the state, Bashir Bolarinwa, said the minister led the campaigns that resulted in the overwhelming defeat of PDP in the last elections.
Bolarinwa also denied the allegation of diversion of party funds during the elections.
