2015: N285M PRESIDENCY CAMPAIGN FUND TEARS KWARA PDP APART *BELGORE BACKS OMOTOSO, LABOUR PARTY CANDIDATE The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Kwara State chapter is currently enmeshed in crisis over N285m reportedly released by the Presidency to prosecute the February polls. It would be recalled that a high powered delegation from the National headquarters of the party and presidency headed by the party’s Chairman, Board of Trustees, Mr. Tony Annenih, was in the state on Tuesday. Even though the delegation was said to be in the state to broker peace among its warring members over the outcome of the primary election that produced its governorship candidate, Senator Simeon Sule Ajibola, the delegation reportedly dropped for the party to prosecute the election. Insider source revealed that the money was given to Ajibola with a proviso that he should summon a meeting where the sharing formula would be reached. Ajibola, upon receiving the money reportedly sent for a Bullion Van from one of the old generation bank on Muritala Mohammed Way, Ilorin, where his cousin was said to be manager. The implication, the source hinted, is that the party state’s gubernatorial candidate reportedly lodged it in his personal account and would be solely financing his election without recourse to the party for directive. This situation was said to have infuriated some of the party’s guber aspirants, namely Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, who the source had hoped that part of the fund would be given to them to augment their losses at the primaries. According to an insider, ‘’ It is a known fact that the presidency doled out $1.5million to the Kwara State PDP for electioneering processes ahead of this year’s election. But the fund, which was handed over to Ajibola, has not been remitted to the party’s purse and neither has been given to the newly campaign committee in the state. ‘Rather, our guber candidate has lodged it in his account at (name of the bank withheld). This has angered some of the guber aspirants on the party’s platform who had hoped and anticipated that part of it would be distributed to them as augmentation for their expenses at the primaries. Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Committee in Kwara State, Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN) is allegedly supporting the candidacy of Mike Omotosho, the Labour Party (LP) guber candidate. Belgore was said to have shunned the reconciliation meeting held earlier in the week in Ilorin where the PDP unveiled Ajibola campaign team for the governorship contest. Though prominent leaders of the party, including Hajia Bola Shagaya, Minister of National Planning, Sulieman Abubakar, among other top party leaders and aspirants graced the event held at Arca Santa along Offa Garage road Ilorin, Belgores absence dominated discussions, as party leaders and elders laboured to rationalise his absence. Belgores absence was a result of his refusal to embrace the reconciliation processes put in place shortly after the partys primaries which produced Ajibola as the governorship candidate. To this end, Belgore was said to have decided to pitch his tent with a former PDP House of Representatives aspirants, Mike Omotosho, who is now the Labour Party (LP) gubernatorial candidate in the state. A top party source who spoke on the matter but declined his name because he was not authorized to speak officially on the matter, confirmed the issue, adding that Belgore is still pained for losing the party’s gubernatorial ticket. “Yes he is supporting Mike Omotosho. You will recall that he was not at the inauguration of the PDP campaign committee but attended yesterday’s event at Kwara Hotel when Tony Anenih led the party’s reconciliation committee to the state. “His action was deliberate and even now at Princess Hotel where the party is strategizing ahead of President Jonathan’s visit on Monday, he is just like somebody that is forced to embrace the resettlement. “Since the conclusion of the partys primaries, he was said to have connived with the Coordinator of the Jonathan Actualization Movement, (JAM) in the North-Central, Dr. Mike Omotosho, to float the Labour Party (LP) with a view to proving that he is still a factor in Kwara politics after working for the re-election of President Jonathan in 2015”, the source added. A number of 36-seater buses and cars embossed with the picture of Omotosho were sighted being driven around along Government House in preparation for his campaign.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 10:12:49 +0000
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