The spokesperson for the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation during the last election, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, says former governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and his River State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, funded President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign.
Fani-Kayode, who is a former Minister of Aviation, said this in an article titled, ‘The Money Transfers and the Truth about the Presidential Campaign Funds’ which he wrote in reaction to allegations levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Fani-Kayode had confessed to receiving N840m as the director of publicity during the electioneering last year but noted that he did not know that the funds emanated from the account of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He, however, described the investigations as a witch-hunt and urged the EFCC to beam its searchlight on Fashola and Amaechi who have since been appointed ministers in Buhari’s.
Fani-Kayode said, “Instead of using the EFCC to try to rubbish me and my colleagues and smear our good names, those that are in power today should tell us where they got their campaign funds from and how much of it came from the governments of Lagos and Rivers state.
“The two people that headed those two state governments then are now both federal ministers today. One of them, who was the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, was specifically indicted by a Judicial Commission of Inquiry for using millions of dollars of state government funds to run the Buhari campaign yet nothing happened and his reward was to be appointed as a minister.”
Fani-Kayode alleged that even in the March 19, 2015 rerun election in Rivers State, Amaechi transported N5bn to the state but the EFCC had done nothing about it.
He added, “Again what about the 5bn cash that was flown down to Port Harcourt in Rivers state from Abuja in chartered plane a couple of days before the re-run election that took place on March 19, 2016? Where did they get that amount of cash from and what was its purpose and source?
“What has the EFCC said or leaked about that? It appears that there is one law for those that are in power today and another for those that are not. Why persecute the innocent and leave the guilty? Was it a crime to fight and lose an election?”
The former minister said Buhari spent 10 times more than Jonathan during the last election. He said Buhari as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, hired the same campaign managers that headed United States President, Barack Obama’s campaign.
Fani-Kayode alleged that the campaign managers were paid $10m.
He claimed that the Jonathan campaign team were underfunded as they were not even given vehicles with which to move around during the electioneering.
He added, “I might add that we spent far less money than the APC and the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation because they had access to massive amounts of state government funds and they used those funds effectively. For every million naira we spent, they spent 10.
“They even contracted the services of a famous American media consultant (the same one that President Obama used in 2008) and paid him $10m for his counsel and advice. They had fleets of cars and buses whilst my directorate was not even given one vehicle to get our people around.
“The official jeep that was meant to have been given to us for our operations during the campaign was high jacked and it never arrived.
“We were forced to use our own personal vehicles and we were glad to do so. Yet the other side had everything that money could buy. They even chartered numerous private jets throughout the campaign to get around the country. Where did they get all their funding from? Why is the EFCC not leaking stories or talking about that?
However, the APC Publicity Secretary in Lagos State, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, described Fani-Kayode’s allegation as a ‘bedtime story for kids’.
Igbokwe urged the former minister to quickly return the N840m he admitted to receiving instead of giving excuses.
Igbokwe wondered how an opposition state could have access to more funds than a party that had been in control of Federal Government resources for 16years.
He said, “Fani-Kayode is afraid of his shadow. Fani-Kayode's PDP ruled Nigeria for 16 years and also looted Nigeria for 16 years with nothing to show for it except decayed infrastructure and empty treasury.
“In his confused state of mind Fani-Kayode thinks APC spent huge sums of money including Lagos and Rivers States money to defeat Jonathan and PDP. This is a bedtime story for kids. What the APC did was to apply common sense where PDP was spending billions.
“Fani-Kayode is one of the PDP shameless leaders that destroyed the PDP. Fani-Kayode left the PDP and for almost a year, he rained abuses on President Jonathan and the PDP. He left no stone unturned in exposing Jonathan as clueless and rudderless, and in fact he brought to the public knowledge the inner workings of PDP and its many woes. Fani-Kayode later returned to the party he had labelled as a monumental and colossal failure to serve as the spokesman for the campaign organisation. What a confused man!”
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