Festus Keyamo, spokesman of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection campaign, says the electoral law on
purchasing nomination forms is being twisted.
Keyamo said this in reaction to
criticisms trailing the purchase of a presidential nomination form for Buhari
by the Nigeria Consolidation Ambassador Network (NCAN).
On Wednesday, the group presented
a cheque of N45 million to Adams Oshiomhole, APC national chairman, for the
purpose of buying Buhari’s form.
Critics of the gesture said it
goes against section 91 (9) of the electoral act which says “no individual or
other entity shall donate more than one million naira to any candidate”.
SKC Ogbonnia, a presidential
aspirant in the APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had described the
development as a violation of the electoral act.
In response, Keyamo said the
president is still an “aspiring aspirant” and not yet a candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections.
An aspirant is a person who seeks
to contest an elective position under a political party while a candidate is
one who has been selected by a party to bear its flag in an election against
other parties.
The senior advocate of Nigeria
(SAN) took to Twitter to absolve Buhari of any wrongdoing, describing those
quoting the act as “mischievous”.
“Some mischievous persons are
reading S. 91(9) of the Electoral Act upside down. The section limits CASH (not
material) donations in respect of CANDIDATES to N1m. PMB is not a CANDIDATE.
He’s an aspiring ASPIRANT. He becomes an ASPIRANT only when he submits his
Forms to his Party,” Keyamo tweeted.
“Same people that said nothing
last week when a group ‘donated’ nomination FORMS to a ‘crying’ opposition
aspirant are now descending on PMB & misquoting the law. It’s more
honorable to openly support a candidate of your choice than hiding behind one
finger & looking ridiculous.
“The situation we have in Nig is
that the REAL oppressors of the masses are struggling to pose as their saviours
whilst they seek to paint the REAL saviours as the oppressors. They’re using
fake news, propaganda, etc, to paint this picture. All they want is to sneak
back to power.
“Some of us are prepared to be
misunderstood, abused & maligned by a few for d position we have taken
today about the future of our country because we see behind the scenes and WE
KNOW THE TRUTH. It is better to be vindicated by posterity than to be applauded
wrongly at the moment
“Let’s be clear that d present
govt may not have gotten EVERY decision right or taken EVERY step right since
2015, but we urge Nigs. to put the sincerity & personal integrity of Mr.
President on an overall scale against those of his opponents in 2019 and see
where the scale tilts.”
FESTUS KEYAMO is doing his job in Apc go on fes
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