Lagos govt funded Fayemi’s campaign with N5bn – PDP

The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday claimed it had facts that the state Governor, Babatunde Fashola, on the instruction of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, diverted over N5bn from the state and local council coffers to bankroll the re-election bid of his Ekiti State counterpart, Governor Kayode Fayemi.

The PDP said the 57 local councils of the state were compelled to contribute N25m each from their May 2014 federal allocation or take loans from banks in order to support the re-election of Fayemi in the Ekiti State governorship election slated for Saturday.

In a statement by the Publicity Secretary of Lagos PDP, Mr. Taofik Gani, the party claimed it got its facts from some council executives, who were unhappy with the directive.

“Such councils are particularly averse to the move because they are indeed already cash strapped by the action. The sum of N1.425bn is expected to be cumulative contributions by the 57 councils and a large chunk of it has been transferred to Ekiti.

Lagos PDP added that it can prove that “Fashola has raised over N5bn for the Ekiti governorship election with much of the monies directly taken from the state and local councils’ treasuries. This is notwithstanding other logistics mobilised to be deployed from Lagos State to support Fayemi.”

It accused Fashola and the APC of siphoning Lagos funds to prosecute Fayemi’s re-election and called on relevant anti-corruption agencies to commence necessary probe into the matter.

In its response, the Lagos chapter of the APC said PDP’s allegation was absurd and inconsequential and added that the state government had good reasons to support Fayemi’s re-election bid.

The Publicity Secretary of APC in Lagos, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said the PDP was only seeking sympathy and could not prove the allegation.

“If you get an answer without showing how you arrived at the answer, no professor of mathematics will take you serious. Mathematicians call it absurd. PDP’s statement is totally absurd and inconsequential.

“We support Dr. Fayemi because of his imperishable and track record of service and integrity in Ekiti State and if that support means truck load of money for Fayemi in the eyes of PDP let it be.”

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