Many, including senior lawyers, had criticised the N45m worth of donation to the President which they argued was a violation of section 91(9) of the Electoral Act, which prescribes the maximum N1m any individual or entity can donate to a presidential candidate.
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday (today) receive the nomination and expression of interest forms of the All Progressives Congress donated to him by a group in support of his bid to seek re-election next year.
The President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed this to one of our correspondents on Monday.
“Yes, it is confirmed. He will receive the form at the Villa tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.
Buhari had in April this year declared his interest to contest for the second term in the forthcoming 2019 elections.
Buoyed by this, a pro-Buhari group, Nigeria Consolidation Ambassadors Network, had on September 5, while Buhari was attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in Beijing, China, purchased the N45m worth of forms for the President.
This came barely 24 hours after the APC formally announced the fees for its nomination forms for various public offices, including that of the President, and dates for its primaries into those offices.
Many, including senior lawyers, had criticised the N45m worth of donation to the President which they argued was a violation of section 91(9) of the Electoral Act, which prescribes the maximum N1m any individual or entity can donate to a presidential candidate.
Asked to comment on the allegation on Monday, Shehu said, “I don’t know anything about that.”
Also asked if the President would address the issue while receiving the form on Tuesday, the presidential aide said, “I don’t know if the President would address the issue or if there is an issue at all.
“All I know is that he will receive the form tomorrow (Tuesday).”
The Nigeria Consolidation Ambassadors Network had, however, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yekini Nabena, denied that its donation of the APC’s nomination form to Buhari violated the Electoral Act.
It noted that the provision of the Electoral Act was not applicable to an aspirant but only relevant to a party’s candidate, which Buhari had yet to become.
The group also said the donation was not a singular effort but a collection medium to aggregate micro-contributions from thousands of Nigerians keen to ensure his re-election.
The Assistant to the President on New Media, Bashir Ahmed, had announced the group’s purchase of the form and shared pictures of the ceremony on his Facebook page.
“While President Buhari is far in China, a group of good Nigerians bought expression of interest form and nomination form for him,” Ahmed had stated.
IPMAN, other groups buy nomination form for el-Rufai, Ganduje
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and four other groups, on Monday, bought a nomination form from the APC for the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to recontest the governorship election in 2019.
The other groups were the National Association of Road Transport Owners, Traders of Sheikh Mahmud Gummi Market and the Katsina and Daura People’s Association all living in Kaduna and the Petroleum Tankers Drivers Association of Nigeria.
The groups presented the nomination form to the governor at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna on Monday.
El-Rufai received the nomination form at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna on Monday from the leader of the group, Alhaji Abbas Likoro.
Meanwhile, a support group of President Muhammadu Buhari and Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, under the aegis of ‘1 to tell 10,’ in Kano on Monday, purchased a N22.5m governorship nomination/statement of interest form from the APC for the governor.
The coalition of 32 groups made the presentation during a grand ceremony held at the Government House.
The leader of the coalition, Yaguda Abdulaziz, said the youths in the state deemed it necessary to support Ganduje and lauded his achievements in youth empowerment programmes.
Ganduje, while responding, said, “I must tell you that this move today is timely, as I was already making moves to sell my cows, as I have given directives to my relatives in the village to do so.”
Ambode, others in last-minute rush for APC gov forms
The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, was among several aspirants who thronged the National Secretariat of the APC in a last-minute rush to beat Tuesday’s deadline for the purchase of nomination forms.
The Chairman of Shomolu Local Government, Gbolahan Bagostowe, who spoke to the media, afterwards, said the second term bid of the governor was in the interest of the people of Lagos State.
Also, a governorship aspirant from Nasarawa State, Dauda Kigbu, who was also at the secretariat to collect his forms, also said he was in the race to govern the state because he had all it took to give the people a new sense of direction.
