FG shares N108bn for presidential poll – ACN

Posted by admin Latest Politics Thursday, April 14th, 2011

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has accused the PDP-controlled Federal Government of allocating billions of naira to states to compromise Saturday’s presidential election, just as it did for last Saturday’s poll.

In a statement issued in Ilorin, Kwara State on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also said major oil companies in the country have supported President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign with 12 million US dollars each, which is a lot of money considering that there are about eight of such firms.

“From the 500 million naira allocated to each state during last week’s National Assembly election, the government has increased the allocation to the states for the presidential election to three billion naira each, to be used to compromise voters, security agencies and electoral officials.

“We are worried, therefore, that the government is using money to compromise the elections and ensure they will not be free, fair and credible. Given the widespread poverty in the country, it is so easy for a government flush with cheap funds to deploy such to thwart the will of the people, and to ensure that issues and ideologies play no role in deciding who the people will vote for.

“While urging local and international observers to carry out their own independent investigations into this massive deployment of money to undermine the elections, we call on Nigerians to go ahead and take any money offered to them by the PDP and its candidates, but to vote only in accordance with the dictates of their conscience,’’ ACN said.

The party said it is not surprised at the huge resources at the disposal of the PDP Federal Government, considering the published story on how companies importing petroleum products were fleeced to the tune of US$8 per Metric Ton of imported product by the PPPRA, which is now under the supervision of the NNPC, just to raise money to finance the president’s campaign.

‘’Nigerians will also recall a statement we issued on March 20th, in which we said that the PDP-controlled federal government granted a duty concession on the importation of 500,000 metric tons of rice (10 million bags) to an unscrupulous firm, and then received as kickback 9.6 billion naira, representing two-thirds of the clearing charges, which the party has been using to fund its electioneering campaign,’’ ACN said.

-Sunwp_posts