2019: What Buhari should do with N45m free APC nomination form – Afenifere

The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reject the N45.5million All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential nomination forms bought for him by a shadowy group, Nigeria Consolidation Ambassadors Network (NCAN).

It argued that President Buhari’s claim that he could not afford them was hypocritical, adding that it was a rehash of similar attitude before the 2015 election.

Recall that the National Coordinator of NCAN, Mr. Sanusi Musa, had on Wednesday presented a cheque of N45.5million at the APC national secretariat for the purchase of expression of interest (N5million) and nomination (N40million) forms on behalf of President Buhari. 

He had said they did it to assist the president, who had earlier complained that the forms were too exorbitant for him to buy as they were way above his salary.

But Afenifere’s spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with Thisday Newspaper, warned that Buhari might be sued by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for violating the Electoral Act.

Although Odumakin did not say which NGO would sue the president, he stressed that it is typical of the Buhari’s administration to take Nigerians for granted.

Odumakin further recalled that Buhari said he took loan to buy his 2015 nomination form, but he is yet to inform the nation if he has indeed finished paying the loan.

He said: “The action of the president is contrary to the provision of Electoral Act 2010 as amended, which pegs individual and group contributions to election expenses of a candidate to N1million.

“You say you are fighting corruption but this is corruption. This is a clear contravention of the Electoral Act. It is all hypocrisy,” Odumakin insisted.