‘Amaechi, Others Paid N100m Each To Hijack APC’

In an apparent attempt to justify allegations that some current players in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government are corrupt, a former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa has alleged that the five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, who defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in 2014 paid N100million each to hijack the party structures in their states.
Bafarawa said the governors paid the money before they were admitted into the then opposition party.
It would be recalled that prior to the elections, then PDP governors such as Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfattah Ahmed (Kwara) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), dumped the PDP for the APC.
Bafarawa, while speaking with newsmen, said that the former PDP governors agreed to pay N100million each to the national secretariat of the party so that they could automatically become leaders of the APC in their respective states.
The former governor said he was one of those who drafted the APC constitution, explaining that some chieftains of the party, who were already recognised as leaders of the party in their respective states, were dislodged by the governors when they allegedly dropped their millions.
He said, “After the party was successfully registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), we heard that five governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were leaving their party to join the APC.
“The affected governors did not get in touch with the stakeholders of the party in their respective states but decided to meet directly with the national leadership of the party.
“Our party leadership told us (at a meeting) that they (the governors) were ready to make their own financial contributions for the takeoff of the party. I was shocked to hear that while we were working hard for greater change, other members of the PDP were coming to join us.
“Unfortunately, what we saw was that the pillars of the PDP – because the governors are pillars of any party – were coming to give their financial contributions of N100million each.
“I was there, (at the meeting). Instantly, I said well, I am not a governor of my state, but I am willing and ready to give my personal N100million) to safeguard my state from the PDP (invasion).
“Unfortunately, they (party leaders) decided (in favour of the governors) and they had their way. Hence, all the PDP governors, who defected to the APC then, automatically became the leaders of the party in their states.
“I was told to hand over the party (structures) to my governor, who was a member of the PDP. Some of us, who felt it would be an insult to us to remain in the party, decided to leave”, Bafarawa revealed.