Former House of Reps member and chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Campaign Committee, during the 2019 general election in Kwara State, Alhaji Moshood Mustapha has absolved Governor Abdulrahman Abdukrazak of any blame in the recent allegation that he misappropriated N1 billion of the campaign fund that was meant for campaign two years ago.
Intra party strife in APC has seen members of the ruling party in state accusing each other.
The latest is the allegation that the governor during the campaign period in 2019 seized money meant for the party for private use.
Spokesman, of the Bashir Bolarinwa Omolaja led faction of APC in the state, Alhaji Abdul-Rahoof Bello had, in Ilorin on Tuesday, asked that Governor Abdukrazak account for N1 billion he allegedly collected from the national Headquarters of APC.
Bello said this in response to allegations by the governor, that the Honourable Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, leader in the Bashir Bolarinwa faction in the state, had misappropriated N100 million money meant for his campaign without telling him as the party candidate at the time.
While explaining his position on the issue, Mustapha said that there was no basis to make such allegations against Governor Abdukrazak because the money in question which came from the National Headquarters of the party in Abuja also came with a formula for sharing it.
“The money was actually N400 million in the first place and given the template given for sharing it. it was not possible for anybody to seize the money” Mustapha said.
He said that after the primaries in 2019, Bolarinwa called him for a party at the Savannah Hotel in Ilorin where he told him the money had arrived from Abuja.
He recalled during a press conference in Ilorin on Friday.
“We proceeded to party Secretariat at Fate to constitute a committee for the sharing of the money for the election as directed by the APC national Secretariat, sharing committee consisted of Bolarinwa the Governor and myself.
“Also included were the three senatorial candidates, three out of the six House of Representatives candidates of the party, the state secretary of the party, the party treasurer, a party leader and a national official who was Mr Lanre Onilu.
“As I clearly remember, nobody took custody of that money. It was shared according to guidelines sent by the party,” Mustapha added.
He, however stated that the current rancour in the party though sad, should be expected given the process of APC formation.
Mustapha, implored all aggrieved APC members to retrace their steps, urging them to join hands with the governor in developing the state.
