Sowore accuses leading parties of spending beyond N1b threshold at primaries
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Mr Omoyele Sowore, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of already spending beyond the threshold for presidential election.
Sowore, 47, made the allegation during his appearance on Channels Televisionpolitical flagship programme, Sunday Politics.
He alleged that the parties went beyond the threshold for the election during their primaries and accused them of not being transparent with how they spend money.
“They have already spent a billion naira during primaries, or more,” the presidential hopeful claimed.
“What they spent in Port Harcourt alone was $25 million in one day. All the Bureau de Change operators in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja all relocated to Port Harcourt.”
Having made the claims, Sowore was countered by Channels Television political correspondent, Seun Okinbaloye, who asked him how true his allegations were.
The presidential candidate insisted that they were facts and not mere allegations.
He said, “I am an investigative reporter before I came into this job of running for office and I can tell you that they are not allegations. They are proven, we have evidence of them doing it (and) they haven’t disputed them by the way.”
“You know that governors are stealing from their states to buy campaign vehicles; otherwise, let them tell us – the APC and PDP how they are raising funds for the election because none of them has done any funder raiser known to anybody since we started the election circle,” Sowore added.
He, thereafter, called for transparency on the part of the political parties and asked Nigerians to hold them to account.
On the other hand, Sowore explained how his campaign group was raising funds to finance his ambition of becoming president in 2019.
He said they opened an account with a commercial bank in the country where they have raised about N39 million, as well as a crowdfunding platform where they have raised more than $103,000.
The journalist challenged other presidential candidates to come forward and explain to Nigerians how they have been raising funds for their campaigns.
On his mantra of ‘Take It Back’, he said, “We are taking this country back from the people who ruined it. People who ruined our past should not be rewarded with managing our future because they are taking us nowhere.”
With 75 days to the general elections, Sowore decried that Nigerians were being exposed to just two candidates whom he described as “incompetent and clueless”.
He, however, called on the people to focus more on the other candidates whom he said were better, younger, more energetic and willing to lead the nation.
Sowore went ahead to discuss some aspects of his manifesto and plans to tackle the challenges facing the nation.
He proffered solutions to the energy and power sector, stressing that Nigeria has not tapped into its enormous potentials of creating enough power for the economy to thrive.
