Buhari, APC Using State Resources For Election Campaign – Atiku

The Presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the All Progressive Congress and its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari of using the resource of government to finance their electoral campaign.

One of the media aide of the Presidential candidate, Paul Ibe, made this claim in a statement on Thursday shared on his Twitter handle, @omonlakiki.

The media aide accused the President and the APC of employing state-sponsored media content to campaign for Buhari.

Naija News recalls that President Buhari on Wednesday vow not to use any money from the public treasury for his re-election campaigns to support the APC ahead of the February 16 poll.

Part of the statement read, “Contrary to their claims, President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress are flagrantly violating the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as amended by their unbridled deployment of state resources and apparatuses for the 2019 presidential campaign.

“Recall that the National Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had in December of last year warned incumbent office holders against using state resources or apparatuses for their campaigns, or deploying same against their opponents.

“Yakubu, who issued the warning at a lecture titled “Political corruption & other emerging issues for the 2019 elections” in Abuja, noted that INEC has the power to monitor campaign financing & sources of funds according to the Constitution & the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

“However, in negation of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the Buhari administration and the APC has taken to the illegal deployment of state resources to its advantage for the election.

“The media is awash with advertisements with the hashtag #PMBDIDIT and signed by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and referencing so-called achievements of the APC administration in the states of Abia, Kwara, Lagos, Ebonyi, Delta and Kano, among others.

“These are without doubt 2019 presidential campaign materials produced by the Ministry of Information and Culture using state resources and apparatuses to benefit President Buhari.

“This appalling conduct, which is clearly in violation of Section 100 of the Electoral Act, is even more shocking when it is recalled that the state resources being used to the illegal advantage of President Buhari are being drawn from agencies which for over three years prior to this election failed to perform their duties to the benefit of Nigerian citizens. The Ministry of Information and Culture must stop this illegality immediately.

“We demand that INEC issues an immediate cease and desist order to both the Ministry of Information and Culture and to the broadcast channels running it.

“We also insist that INEC register the media spend behind it as part of the APC’s total N1 billion campaign spend limit.

“Fortunately, INEC is alert to this danger and itself warned the ruling party to refrain from such conduct. Now that the party has clearly flouted the law in negation of the electoral umpire’s warning, we urge that INEC sanctions them accordingly.”