2015: PRESIDENCY’S N285M CAMPAIGN FUND TEARS KWARA PDP APART BELGORE BACKS OMOTOSO, LABOUR PARTY CANDIDATE The N285m reportedly given by the presidency to the Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the electioneering processes, has further polarised the party, National Pilot has gathered. It would be recalled that high power 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. Though it was reported that the delegation was in the state to broker peace among its members who were engulfed in internal crisis following the primary election that produced its governorship candidate, Senator Simeon Sule Ajibola, this medium reliably learnt that $1.5millon(N285 million) was handled over to the party for the electioneering processes. According to a source, who was privy to the proceedings of the meeting, the fund was reportedly handed over to Ajibola, who was expected to call for a meeting on how it would be distributed to all party’s machineries for the polls. The source said, Ajibola whose emergence was stiffly opposed by Hajia Muinat Shagaya’s camp, upon receiving the fund, reportedly called 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 guber candidate had reportedly lodged it in his personal account and would be solely financising his election without taking recourse to the party for directive. This reportedly 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. The source said: ‘’ 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, this medium has also learnt. BELGORE reportedly shunned the reconciliation meeting held earlier in the week in Ilorin where the PDP unveiled Ajibola campaign team for the guber 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, BELGORE’s absent dominated discuss as party leaders and elders laboured to rationalise his absence. According to findings by this medium, Belgores absence was not unconnected with 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) guber 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 he (BELGORE) is still pained for losing the party’s guber 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 (BELGORE) 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. On Tuesday, one of our reporters witnessed 36 seater busses and cars embossed with the picture of Omotosho driven around along government house in preparation for his campaign. Efforts to get either BELGORE or Omotosho proved abortive as calls put across to their phones lines were not answered.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 08:40:42 +0000