Obasanjo’s coalition reacts as Group picks N45m form for Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, picked his expression of interest and nomination form, to contest in the forthcoming primary election of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Buhari’s Special Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmaad, via his Twitter handle confirmed that the form, which was sold for N45million, was purchased on his behalf by one of his support groups, the Nigerian Consolidation Ambassadors’ Network.

The ruling party had on Tuesday announced that a presidential aspirant would pay N45m for its expression of interest and nominations forms; a governorship aspirant would pay N22.5m; a senatorial aspirant, N7m.

Speaking on the development, the Spokesman for the CNM, Akin Osuntokun, on Wednesday, said the price of APC forms showed the ruling party was not committed to fighting corruption.

Osuntokun described the form being picked by a group of persons as deceit and hypocrisy on the part of APC in relation to its fight against corruption.

He told Punch, “Any party that claims to fight corruption needs to deemphasise the idea of splashing money around or placing fees ranging from N45 to N50m to purchase forms. If your aim is to weed out pretenders from the list of aspirants, there are other ways to do that. It doesn’t have to be monetary.

“This is nothing but hypocrisy on the part of the APC. The President had said in 2014 that he obtained a bank loan in order to purchase the form. How did he pay it back? Today, they claim some youths purchased the forms but this is nothing but hypocrisy.

“The APC has already made it clear that Buhari will be its candidate. So, why are they engaging in these games?”