APC: No plan to spend N6.5trn on vote-buying in 2023

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has debunked a document making the rounds that the party has earmarked N6.5 trillion to induce voters in the 2023 presidential election.

The APC made this known via a statement issued and made available to The Star on Monday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Barr. Felix Morka

The ruling party, in a statement titled, ‘Leaked election document – a figment of opposition’s imagination’, described the viral document as the handiwork of the members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “in a desperate quest for unmerited electoral advantage by attempting to smear our party with wrongdoing”.

The statement read: “The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to a document in circulation described as “leaked APC 2023 Election Document.”

“Mischievously, the document alleged that our party has voted a whooping N6.5trillion to fund schemes aimed at swaying the Nigerian electorate to support and vote for the party and its presidential candidate in 2023.

“Ridiculously, too, the document alleged that obscene amounts of money have been voted for outright vote-buying; compromising INEC staff; security operatives; judicial officers and other officials.

“The APC wishes to place firmly on record that the document is not of the party. We neither authored nor own any such document, and it certainly did not emanate from our party.

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“Indubitably, the document is the handiwork of very sick elements of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a desperate quest for unmerited electoral advantage by attempting to smear our party with wrongdoing.

“In their zealous attempt to mudsling, the document’s authors senselessly alleged that our party proposes to apply nearly half of the country’s entire 2022 budget to buy votes. How in the world does a government operating a national budget of N17trillion dole out N6.5trillion to rig elections? It clearly betrays the authors’ extreme ignorance of the complexity of the systems and processes for the appropriation and utilization of state funds.

“Our party is focused on delivering the dividends of democracy to Nigerians in hope that they will reciprocate by supporting and voting for our candidates come 2023 elections. We are a law-abiding party and have no need to engage in any fraud and electoral malpractice suggested in that worthless document.

“Only a party that is a masterful looter of the national treasury such as the PDP can even imagine another capable of engaging in the kinds of atrocious acts the document suggests.”

The APC, therefore, urged Nigerians to disregard the document “as sleazy propaganda for which the PDP has gained notoriety”.

“The APC remains committed to building an innovative system of free and credible elections as witnessed in the recently concluded governorship elections in Ekiti State,” the party added.

The Star